My final week in Japan

Following our three-week escapade in Thailand, Mom and I returned to Japan in the middle of August to finish some business and final sightseeing. The girl who’s taking over for me as native English teacher at the school, Thapelo, graciously allowed Mom and me to stay with her.

On the fourteenth we met my host mother Kazuko (from the weekend I spent in Komono) at the Nagoya night zoo around 2:30. Mom was starved from not eating much on the plane or for breakfast that morning, but we couldn’t find an open restaurant! The famous sky tower café only served “tea” in the afternoon, and they said there were no other restaurants in the zoo. We were afraid we’d have to leave the zoo and come back, but fortunately we found some snacks like popcorn and chicken on a stick to hold Mom over until the super buffet in the evening. Man, that was good, but expensive! Japanese buffets, called “Vikingu,” after the original Viking themed buffet in Tokyo, are upwards of $30 per person! But we had a gorgeous view of most of downtown Nagoya as we ate, including the harbor and lit-up Ferris wheel.

Here are some pictures from the zoo. Me with Kazuko in the cactus room:



The cactus room itself (the roots look cool to me):



And a Mickey mouse flower:



The arboretums were very nice, though Mom was annoyed by the Japanese pop music playing on the nearby stage with Japanese girls prancing around with their chests and rears sticking out (not really dancing). You get used to that after awhile. If you ask them about it, they say it’s “cute.” Disturbing…

It was interesting getting to see all the animals out at night, (I’m not talking about the girls now), but it was too dark to get good pictures. We left about 7:30, since it takes about two and a half hours to get from there back to my apartment.

Monday morning we went over the my friend Kae’s house to do laundry and for me to apply online for a job at Tulsa Community College teaching English as a Second Language. (The application was due the next day and it was my first chance to get to a computer after leaving for Thailand.) We invited Kae to come with us to Akame Taki 48 waterfalls the next day, and she accepted. (I couldn’t leave Japan without seeing my favorite place one last time.)

Here are some pictures:









Rice fields on the car ride back:



Wednesday, Mom and I took the four-hour train journey to the world-famous Kumano hanabi takai, one of the largest fireworks displays in all Japan. (I had to get train reservations a month in advance, and even then only the earliest train out was available.) On the way we had to change trains in Matsusaka, where Mom wanted to sample the famous Matsusaka beef. It came in a cow-head container that mooed at us when we opened it! Underneath the lid we found about a pound of rice, some pickled radish, and two tablespoons of beef. We kept the container as a souvenir.

We got into Kumano about 2:00 and the fireworks didn’t start until 7:00, so we decided to spend the first few hours on the gorgeous Kumano beach. Only most of it was blocked off for the fireworks! We spent an hour winding our way through the streets until we ran into a pair of Japanese girls.

“Excuse me,” I asked them in Japanese. “Do you know how to get to the beach?”

“We’re going there too,” one said. “Why don’t you come with us?”

“By the way, where are you from?” the other asked.

“Nabari city in Mie,” I replied, thinking they had probably never heard of it.

“Oh, we’re from Iga!” they exclaimed, which is just the next town over. “Come meet our friends!”

Much to my surprise, several of my students and my students' parents were there! They gave us water and offered to watch our stuff while we went swimming. How nice!

Here’s a view of the beautiful beach:



Just before the fireworks we followed the huge crowd back to the display beach, where we found the other JETs who had staked out one of the best spots with a big blue tarp. We spent the next two hours in total awe as over 10,000 explosions lit up the night sky. Here are some videos. Please ignore the rude language of the other JETs. Some of them were very drunk by this time.





Spectacular, huh? There were other even better ones, like fireworks that turned into mushrooms and flowers and umbrellas, but my camera battery ran dead.

We spent the night with my writer buddy Melissa, who has a huge house (by Japanese standards) and a very cute cat. The next morning she took us to breakfast overlooking lion rock. Here’s Mom and me in front of it:



Then Melissa drove us to onigajo, demon castle rock. Here’s me inside the “castle:”



Melissa had stuff to do after that, and Mom and I were at a loss for what to do. (I should have planned better.) We ended up walking to the rundown train station, which exhausted us, and when we got there, we weren’t even sure it was a train station. It was just a platform, like something you might see in an old Wild West movie. There was no place to buy a ticket. We saw a man standing on the platform, so I asked him in Japanese, “Is this a train station?”

He muttered something in a dialect I couldn’t understand.

“Sorry, slowly please?” I asked.

He muttered something else, chewing on his cigarette.

“I don’t think he’s…normal,” Mom whispered to me. “I think you’re wasting your time trying to talk to him.”

But I was determined to communicate. I told him we wanted to go to the longest waterfall on Honshu Island. I finally got out of him that the train would come about 4:15. But when we tried to get on the train, he yelled at us and waved his arms as if it were the wrong train.

“Whatever,” I told Mom. “Let’s just stay on.”

Turns out the guy was right. It would have been the right train, as Melissa had told us, only being after 4:00, the train no longer went to the waterfall. So Mom and I gave up, called Melissa, and told her we were going home to Nabari. We might have stayed another night, but it was just so blasted hot. Kumano is considered the “south” of Japan, and really more subtropical than temperate.

Friday we ran my final errands in Japan, like closing my bank account, closing my cell phone account (which took four hours for some reason) and other such things. Unfortunately, I got kicked out of Thapelo’s apartment (not her fault, the school insisted), but my friend Shino took us in for the night. (She and her boyfriend Daiki are so nice, and they also have a really cute cat.)

Saturday morning we left around 7:00am on the shinkansen (bullet train) for Hiroshima. This requires some explanation. In 1971, a man named Kazuo visited my grandparents in Michigan on a cultural tour with his company, Mazda, to study car manufacturing in the United States. Now, forty years later, he returned the favor to Mom and me. He greeted us at Hiroshima station around 10:00 and took us in a taxi to the quaint little apartment he shares with his wife Hiroko (who speaks no English). We rested a bit, then Kazuo took us to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and Museum, built to commemorate the dropping of the first atomic bomb.

To say it was horrifying would be an immense understatement. Displays revealed charred remains of children’s lunch boxes, torn and burned clothes, and smashed watches, all stopped at 8:15am. Plastic mannequins and photographs showed skin melting from bones, shards of shattered glass slicing through flesh, and curtains permanently stained from nuclear fallout called “black rain.” We stood before the A-Bomb Dome, the former Hiroshima city hall, which was directly under the epicenter of the blast. Because it was made of steel, it was the only building left standing for two miles. Only its shell remained:



On the morning of August 6, 1945, thousands of students were demolishing old buildings to create fire lanes in case of conventional bombing. They had no warning and no idea what hit them. The bomb exploded like a small sun, about 4,500,000 Fahrenheit at the detonation a quarter mile high, and 5,500 to 7,250 degrees on the ground. Survivors who staggered home were so thirsty that many died from drinking the “black rain.” Others died of cancer a few years later. The total deaths were about 200,000, mostly civilians.

Far from blaming the U.S., the museum had an entire section on Japan’s war atrocities, as well as information about current nuclear warfare. Since that day, Hiroshima has dedicated itself to the cause of peace and end of nuclear weapons. Every time a nuclear weapons test is conducted anywhere in the world, the mayor of Hiroshima and many citizens write letters pleading for that country to stop.

Seeing all this of course sparked many conversations about our personal feelings towards that particular historic decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima. It’s hard to say how I feel aside from being appalled at the sheer number of lives lost. I honestly think I don’t have the right to judge. War is war. I wasn’t alive then and even if I was could I critique fairly? All I can say is I’m sure glad I wasn’t President Harry Truman in 1945. It’s not like he could stand by and accurately compare numbers of casualties or predict the future. (“Let’s see, if I drop the bomb, this many people will probably die. If I don’t drop the bomb, this many people or more will probably die anyway in the long, drawn out battles and conventional bombings. Will the dropping of this bomb ensure that the war will stay ended, frightening any future war-makers into peace, or will it spur them on to also desire this weapon of massive destruction and power?”) Any statistics or future projections he had were purely guess work. It’s hardly relevant what I think anyway because there’s nothing I can do to change the past even if I wanted to. There is only one true Fair Judge of the Universe, and that’s God. Only He has an accurate depiction of all that has happened, both in reality and in the hearts and minds of men.

Though I must say, for a nation that had two cities blown to bits by nuclear energy, you'd think they would be far more wary of nuclear power. Why do they keep insisting nuclear reactors are safe, even after the earthquake and meltdown and disaster? Why weren't people evacuated sooner and faster? Why did the government lie? Why are they still selling crops from the affected area? Why hasn't Tokyo electric been sued and put out of business for obviously cutting corners and safety? Stupid, stupid, stupid...

After the museum, we went back to Kazuo’s house for dinner, where our conversation included Hiroko, and transitioned to general feelings toward war and peace. Kazuo and his wife, of course, stated simply and emphatically that everyone should seek world peace above all else, and questioned us (politely) as to why the United States does not do this. This is what I said, in not so many words (and far less articulately, since I was struggling to speak in broken Japanese or have Kazuo with his good but imperfect English at least understand me).

World peace is beautiful to think and talk about, but it gets messy in the real world. This is something Japan does not always understand, for Japan has no military and no one at war with them, essentially because the United States protects them now. (That seems only fair, after all.) But America has many enemies. So we build up troops and weapons to detour war. Does it work? Sometimes it does, sometimes not. The fear, of course, is that the minute we destroy all our weapons and send our troops home, someone will attack us again. Various countries have even sworn that they would. The problem with being the biggest kid on the block is you kind of have to stay the biggest kid on the block because there’s always someone else who will take that spot by blowing you to smithereens if you let them. You’re also expected, from time to time, to protect the littelest kids. If you don’t, people hate you for that. Thus, the biggest kid is always the most hated kid, no matter what he (or she, as the United States is usually personified) does. So perhaps the solution is simply to never let yourself be the biggest kid, to be one of those small, unassuming European countries that rarely anyone picks on. They don’t really need a military these days. But it’s a bit too late for the United States on this issue, perhaps. We’re already big and assuming. To change that, we’d have to break up all the states and destroy our economy, which is also not a smart move.

This all bugs me very much as a Christian, because you honestly wonder what Christ would want the United States to do. Does “turn the other cheek” apply to nations as well as individuals? Should we just trust in God to protect us and become a one hundred percent pacifist nation? Or should we follow the biblical example of Israel and continue as we are, fighting all our enemies and even conquering them? The Bible is not clear on this issue, so again I must defer judgment on all of my country’s military exploits and expenditures. Boy, am I glad I’m not a politician!

Finally, we discussed the only way there ever could be peace on Earth. Mom and I shared our faith in the Prince of Peace. Our hosts were fascinated by the Christian concept that humans are tainted by sin and incapable of complete peace on our own, and that we need Jesus to save us and the Holy Spirit to help us. One day, we told them, there will be peace, but it won’t be on this world, and it won’t be by our doing. At first they thought our faith sounded “just like Buddhism,” but when I explained grace and God becoming human and dying for us, Kazuo nodded, eyes wide. “Yes,” he said, “that is different, and very beautiful.”

The following day was not so weighty. Rain fell torrentially, but didn’t dissuade us from taking the ferry to the famous torii gate and shrine of Miyajima island. It’s ranked one of the top three scenic spots in Japan, and it’s easy to see why!



The 52.5-foot red gate seemed to float in the ocean, shrouded in mist and forested mountains. In ancient times, pilgrims passed their boats through the gate before entering the shrine to “leave the profane and enter the sacred.” The shrine’s main structure is also built on stilts over the water. Wild deer followed us, hoping to nibble our maps or clothes as we enjoyed the gorgeous vistas. We saw some raccoon dogs that belonged to the priests or something, very cute animals that look just like their name, some of them albino. We ended with a lovely aquarium featuring life from the Seto Inland Sea.

Monday we caught the bus for Osaka, saw one of the largest aquariums in the world (the Kaiyukan) and finally got our plane for America on Tuesday, August 23rd. Sadly, my Asian adventure is over. For now…

Prayers Requests: That God direct the next path in my life concerning a job, relationships, writing, and further missions!

The Inauspicious Purple Train & Siam Ocean World

The following day, Thursday, August 11th, we had a relaxing morning to pack our things. During a leisurely breakfast, I met a couple from Las Vegas, the wife a teacher and husband a card dealer at a casino. I had just finished the book Mom brought me (Wyrms, by Orson Scott Card), and wanted something to do for the upcoming long plane trips, so the man gave me some of the books he and his wife had brought but finished. I really liked Pirates! about privateers in the British Jamaican colonies of the 1600s, but the others weren’t my style.

A driver picked us up at 10:30 for a cruise along the Mae Ping River. Our guide pointed out various peasant huts as well as the U.S. embassy, the teakwood residence of the former Thai Prime Minister, and the Thai Bible Society and school. Here’s a really big, four hundred year old bodhi tree, the kind that’s so prominent in Buddhist mythology. (At least, I think this is a bodhi tree):




After an hour, we arrived at a “farmer’s house,” not really a functioning farm, but a place to show tourists what rural Thai life is like:



We saw fruit trees (including star fruit and bananas), herbs and spices, jasmine rice, (which is simply a variety of Thai rice with a sweet smell, not rice mixed with jasmine) and some vegetables, pheasants, chickens and ducks all with their eggs, pigs and guinea pigs. Frogs, crabs, shrimp, and small fish live in the rice paddies, and Thai farmers harvest those too. The guide/boat pilot served us watermelon, pineapple, and logan juice (very sweat and tasty). We also saw the inside of a small hut where the movie Rocky IV was filmed:



The dress I’m wearing in the picture is the one I bought at the hot spring town I mentioned last time. Thai dresses are so cool, light, and cheap! We got back on the boat, followed by a van, and arrived at our hotel around 1:30. We wondered if we should go see a monkey show or something, but we didn’t want to be rushed. And it’s a good thing we got some rest! You’ll see why in a minute…

About 3:30 we got picked up for our night train back to Bangkok, which left about 5:00. When we first arrived at the station and saw our train, we thought it looked very nice. Purple:




“That’s an ‘auspicious’ color, right?” I asked, using one of the favorite words of our first Thai guide, Chiya.

Boy, was I wrong! We were soon calling it the “inauspicious purple train.” First of all, our compartment was near the bathroom, so it stank. Really bad. The toilets were simply pits, and it was almost impossible to use them with the train bouncing and clanging every which way. (This was a very old train, very clicketly clack, not a relatively smooth ride like those in Japan.) No one on the entire train spoke English. Our compartment mates were a French couple, and though they were nice enough, they made it pretty clear that they couldn’t communicate with us. The staff didn’t feed us. It was pretty hard to sleep with all the bumping. We stopped for a really long time during the night. Turns out, the train broke down. We were supposed to arrive in Bangkok around 7:00am, but it got to be 8:00, then 9:00, and we still weren’t there. Mom and I both tried to ask when we would arrive at our destination, but no one could tell us in English. The guide to the French couple came in and tried to explain the situation in broken French, but when we asked them what he said, the man just shrugged and said in the little English he knew, “I didn’t understand.”

To top it all off, we didn’t know what stop to get off at. On all trains I had ridden before, the train staff called out the name of the station as we pulled in. These guys didn’t. Our tickets simply said, “Bangkok,” but it turns out there were multiple stations in Bangkok. A train staff member looked at our ticket, puzzled, and told us the name of the station he thought we should get off at. We finally came in around 11:30am, our supposedly fourteen-hour overnight ride turning into 18 ½ hours on that literally stinking train, and to the wrong station. No one was waiting for us. We had to take a taxi to our hotel and hope that this time the taxi driver would know where it was (unlike our first two nights in Bangkok). Fortunately, he did, though it cost a pretty penny since it was clear on the other side of town.

In summery, don’t ever take the night train! I thought it would save us time and money, but it didn’t. The worst part is, I should have known better! I’ve taken the night train in India and the night bus in Japan, and those were terrible too. Night travel just isn’t for me.

But here’s a picture of the view outside, a flooded rice field:



Our consolation prize was that our hotel (the Royal View again) upgraded us to a suite for free, though I don’t know why. Maybe they forgot we were coming and booked our previous room to someone else, so to make up for that they gave us a suite. Whatever the reason, we sure appreciated spending our last two Thai nights in style. Just as we got into our room, the people who were supposed to pick us up five hours ago called, very worried, and we assured them we had made it all right.

Once we settled in, we hired a driver to take us to the “largest aquarium in Southeast Asia,” Siam Ocean World. The guide was very nice, led us through the huge mall to the aquarium, and got our tickets so we didn’t have to wait in the ridiculously long line. At first we were surprised by all the people (there must have been thousands) and most of them Thai. She explained it was a national holiday, the Queen’s birthday, and Mother’s Day. She suggested I take my mother out to eat, since there were so many mother daughter specials. But first we enjoyed the aquarium.

There were some beautiful fish and nice feeding shows with divers in the tanks, though all the spoken explanations were entirely in Thai. The plaques were in English besides Thai, and that was enough. Here’s a beautiful blue wrasse:



We got a “behind the scenes” tour to see some baby fish, and a glass bottom boat ride. There was also an interesting children’s area with these exhibits:

Refrigerator fish tank:



Microwave fish tank:



A “fish car”:



We enjoyed some cotton candy and popcorn, snacks I haven’t had in a long time, while watching the playful Asian small clawed river otters and adorable river rats. (I never thought I’d ever write “adorable rat,” but these guys were pretty cute.) We stayed from about 1:30 to 6:30, then had dinner at the food court. Shrimp wantons and roasted duck soup for me, Kentucky Fried Chicken sandwich for Mom. (But she couldn’t handle that either; the Thai version is too spicy for her. I think if it weren’t for cashew chicken and stir-fry, Mom would have starved in Thailand.)

I figured out how to use the sky train (similar to the Singapore system) to get to Victory Monument Station, then we walked about thirty minutes to our hotel (we got lost a few times and ended up showing our hotel card a lot). Several guys offered to take us there on the back of their motorcycles for a small fee, which I would have probably done if it were just me, but Mom didn’t like that idea so much, so we just walked. I’m glad we did, because I enjoyed seeing the streets of Bangkok at night. If it were just me, I probably would have used public transportation a lot more too, but I know Mom doesn’t like it so much. You get used to it after living in a small, crowded country for two years. I like adventure, Mom likes stress-free vacations, though I know she stretched herself a lot on this trip. I have to admit, it was nice not to have to worry about how to get here and there, instead having someone to pick us up and drop us off everywhere and guide us around and answer all our questions. I got to have my scuba diving adventure and pet a full-grown tiger and figure out the Bangkok subway. So I think we had a good balance of adventure and other people taking care of us.

We got back to our hotel about 9:00 and watched a little Thai TV for the first time. About 1/3 of it was American with Thai dubbing, ¼ was Japanese, and another ¼ was Korean and Chinese. There were only one or two channels originally made in Thailand. It was funny to see Americans and Japanese speaking Thai.

The next morning, we got picked up for the airport about 8:00am. We arrived pretty early for our 11:30 flight, so we walked around and enjoyed the airport again. Here’s a beautiful statue at the entrance of international departures:



An explanation from the plaque: "Scene of The Churning of The Milk Ocean: This scene depicts the Vishnu Kurmavatara and the churning of the Milk Ocean. The naga (the king of serpents), Vasuki, is curled around the mountain Mandara. Vishnu (the god who preserves and sustains the universe in Hinduism) incarnated in the form of a great turtle, supports the mountain on his back. Devas (demigods) and Asuras (demons) pull on the naga's body to churn the water of the ocean for thousands of years in order to produce the nectar of immortality, Amrita. From the churning, numerous opulent items are produced, including Dhanvantari carrying the pot of Amrita. In the end, the cooperation between Devas and Asuras is shattered. The Devas, fulfill their plan of acquiring all Amrita and disperse the Asuras out of Heaven to the Underworld."

Those are the kind of stories you get from India and Southeast Asia, and come to think of it, all mythology in general. They really don't make a whole lot of sense to someone outside the culture, and even those who grew up with the stories find them strange and inexplicable. Those who believe them accept them purely on faith, realizing that there is more out there than we mere mortals can possibly understand. So I have a far bigger tiff with people who deny any sort of supernatural at all than I do with people who at least admit that, logically speaking, there is no way finite beings such as ourselves can possibly measure, test, and otherwise comprehend an infinite universe and the Being that created it, especially since He, by definition, would exist outside the perimeters of His creation, just as an animator or novelist exists outside the rules and boundaries of his or her own work of art. Completely incomprehensible, that is, short of God "writing Himself into the story" or otherwise revealing himself to us, which is what I believe He did through the Bible and Jesus Christ.

This picture’s actually from our first time in Bangkok airport. Ronald McDonald, Thai style:



We enjoyed buying some last-minute souvenirs with our remaining Baht, then exchanged the rest. Our Thai Airways flight (“smooth as silk”) had a pretty cheesy safety video that made us laugh, though not quite as cheesy as the Delta one. I think airline videos are almost a genre in and of themselves. Just how cheesy can we be about giving these safety instructions, with soothing background music and smiling, sexy flight attendants as we play out these emergency situations and talk about all the ways you could die if something goes wrong with the aircraft?

It was about a five and a half hour flight, with all announcements done in Thai, English, and Japanese (since it was a flight bound for Japan). I spent the time watching movies, reading, sleeping, cracking jokes about the safety videos, and translating the Japanese announcements before they were said in English, proud of myself when I almost got them word-perfect (once).

Descending over Honshu island (the main island), we saw the most gorgeous cloud formations, with mountains poking through like islands in a foaming sea, and a rosette sunset. This isn’t Mt. Fuji, but it’s some really tall peak:



After customs, baggage, train, bus, (yes, plane, train, and bus all in one day), we got into Nabari about 10:30pm. We grabbed food at the combini (convenience store), dragged our suitcases up to the third floor, and got in with the spare key. Thapello (pronounced Tapello) arrived a few minutes later. She’s the new Assistant Language Teacher at Kikyogaoka High School to replace me, and she agreed we could stay in her apartment (which used to be mine) for a few days. She’s from South Africa, but I don’t remember the name of her tribe, maybe Zulu. She speaks something like five or more languages, and her English is perfect. I knew a few words of Zulu (or maybe it’s Swahili; I really need to brush up on my African cultures) from my high school choir days, and sang them for her. She was able to sing the song with me and was surprised that I knew it. We performed it for Kuwanza during the Christmas Spectacular at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center with all those amazing artists when I was a junior, in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the end of apartheid.

Anyway, she and I hit it off pretty good at first, which is nice because I was afraid we wouldn’t. I had been hoping she would take over my Christian class at the church and Jet Christian fellowship library, but she’s Muslim. I almost wonder if the school chose a Muslim from South Africa on purpose, because they were so annoyed with my “American ways” and talking about my faith with the students, especially when the band kids played at the Easter service at our church to raise money for the Tohoku disaster victims. I gave my testimony in front of them. We tried to pass out Japanese comic book Bibles to the kids afterwards, but the teachers forbade it. At my going away speech, I even told them that Jesus loved them and died for them. I still think the school probably chose Thapello partly for those reasons (not wanting a Christian or an American again), but she’s nice. I think she’ll do really well with my kids, and I found someone else to take over the other positions.

Anyway, that was our entire adventure in Thailand! Stay tuned for our week in Japan!

Laos, Golden Triangle, and Hill Tribes

Oops, I mixed up these two blogs! The previous post, about the elephants, orchids, and tigers, was actually Wednesday, Aug 10th. This day was actually before then, on Tuesday, August 9th. Oh, well. Mistake fixed!

The following day was our big trip up north from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai to visit the Golden Triangle, Laos, and hill tribe villages. We were picked up at our hotel around 7:30 in a big van. Our guide, Nam, was a Thai woman who’s English wasn’t quite as good as Chiya’s, but still understandable. Along the way, we stopped at a beautiful hot springs.

Here’s some of the mountains you can see in the north:



And the hot spring:



I bought a really pretty pink dress in that town. I bought a total of three summer dresses in Thailand, all very nice and cheap. The dress I’m wearing in the picture is from Japan, a present from Pastor Toshi and Kumi for my two years of service at the church.

Next we stopped by the famous “white temple,” a very strange, contemporary structure designed more as a tourist attraction than a place of worship, I think. Here’s Mom and me in front:



And here are the hands before the entrance supposedly “reaching up from hell.” That was really creepy.




We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the inside, but right alongside the pictures of people in modern dress from all nations being flown on magic carpets to meet the Buddha in heaven, were images of spider man, the Hulk, Superman, Neo from the Matrix, even Japanese cartoon characters. Modern-day superheroes painted all over the walls. I asked Nam what that was all about. I assumed it had something to do with “karma” or heroism or something semi-intelligent like that, but she said no, the temple designer simply liked those characters so he included them inside the temple. Talk about irreverent. Who could possibly take their religion seriously when they’ve got anpan man (red bean paste bread man), Snoopy, and violent video game characters right alongside Buddha, who preached against violence and worldliness? They were still working on the mural too. It’ll be a sight to see when it’s finished.

Even creepier was the full-sized figure of a monk meditating in the middle of the temple in front of the Buddha statue. He looked like a real man, right down to the wrinkles in his skin and robe, but he turned out just to be a wax statue. Nearly fooled me!

The creepiness didn’t end there. There were demon heads hanging from all the trees with mossy plants growing from them like hair and beards, and weird statues sticking up from the ground, designed after the creature from Alien and other horror movies:




If they’re trying to freak people out, they got what they wanted!

Of course, if you visit the white temple, you’ve got to visit its golden bathroom. It’s gold on the inside too!



From there we took a river cruise to the golden triangle. Our guide explained that this was a triangle-shaped area of sandbars between Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos in the Mekong River. In the old days, that’s the only place where trader were allowed to buy and sell opium, and since the currencies of the three countries were all different, everyone had to use gold.

“You want opium?” Nam asked. “I can arrange for you. You buy drug, then get free stay in jail. Good deal, no?”

The river is also a major form of transportation. Boats can sail down it from as far away as China, and we saw some bearing the red five-star flag. We passed a lot of casinos, fancy hotels, and famous residences. Here’s some photos:





We finally got off at Laos. The difference in wealth was immediately obvious, even more striking than when you cross over from the United States into Mexico. In contrast to Thailand’s constitutional monarchy, extremely consumerist, tourist, capitalist society, Laos is communist, and it shows.

As soon as we arrived, some of the children got onto the boat, road it for a few seconds, and then jumped off to swim back to the pier, probably the only fun they ever got. But most immediately started begging for money. I gave them each a little something, and then said, “photo, photo!” Even though they spoke little English, they sure knew that word!



Some more pictures:



Sorry my finger’s partly in the way of this one:



Apparently we were in one of the richest parts of the country too, right on the boarder with Thailand, one of the few areas allowed to sell products to tourists. The big attraction in Laos is the super cheap fake name brand goods, but Mom and I weren’t interested in that, so we went for about a twenty minute walk, since we only had thirty minutes in Laos. Here’s what we saw.

Mother and daughter shrimp fishing:




Kids watching over their cattle:



Some huts for who knows what:



Mom and I wondered if the proper adjective for everything from Laos was “Lousy.” We joked about that for awhile. Laos sure does have a “Lousy” economy. Here are some “Lousy” ducks:



Here’s “Lousy” snake whiskey. Yes, that’s a real cobra biting its own tail, and “Lousy” doctors prescribe that you drink a small cup twice a day before meals to cure “rheumatism, lumbago, and sweat of limbs.” It’s supposed to make you stronger too.



Nam told us the proper term is “Laotian,” not to be confused with the term “Laodicean” used to describe the church in the city of Laodicea in the New Testament. I sure hope things improve for the Laotians.

After that, we had a nice buffet lunch, then headed to a bustling market street on the boarder of Myanmar (former Burma) and Thailand.

Here’s a strange sight in front of a modern clock shop:



Ethnic dolls from the hill tribe peoples:



Woman with an umbrella hat:



Mom and me in front of the border crossing:




We didn’t cross, because that would have cost 500 Baht, or about $16.21 per person. It also takes time off your Thailand VISA because Thailand and Burma have never been on the best of terms. It’s like how India cuts your time in India or denies you all together if you’ve been to Pakistan or have relatives in Pakistan or any connection with Pakistan whatsoever. Israel does that for some places too.

Here’s a peak at Myanmar:




Next, we stopped by some of the hill tribe villages. I felt like we had stepped into a national geographic special:



The bridge into the long neck and long eared villages. Quite wobbly!



Some pictures of the long neck ladies and their weaving:










These were a nomadic or aboriginal people (many of them Christian) who got kicked out of Myanmar, much like the Myanmar refugees I now teach in Oklahoma. At first Thailand didn’t want them either, but now they’re making quite a pretty penny from tourists as a novelty, so the Thai “let them stay.” But they don’t have any legal rights and none of them are allowed citizen cards, even those who were born in Thailand to families who have been living there for a few generations.

We asked why they put those long brass coils around their necks. Some suspect it used to be to protect from tiger bites. Others think it’s just considered beautiful. It looks awfully painful. Some think it’s a symbol of “women’s oppression,” since only women wear them, but in recent years it’s actually helped their status. While the men are out working in the fields (or in many cases are unemployed), the women make scarves and other weavings and look beautiful and exotic for the tourists, bringing in most of the village income. So women are more valued in their culture than ever before. Kind of strange how that works.

Here’s a “long-eared” woman. The tribes are related, but not the same:



Here’s a little tribal girl who hasn’t started wearing the bronze coil yet:



We stopped by a little store on the way back and bought some dried papaya. It was OK, not nearly as good as the kind from the Philippines I bought while I was in the airport there last year. But the chocolate and sesame coconut was really good!

Then we had the long drive back to Chiang Mai and arrived at our hotel about 9:00pm. What a wonderful day!