Farewell to South-East Asia

our final days in thailand have found us once again grovelling at the feet of the owners of the Bamboo guesthouse. despite being perhaps the most un-hospitable people in Bangkok, we are forced, like abused housewives, back into the shelter of their large rooms, ornate headboards, and camoflage blanket/curtains. for a mere 50 cents more than what we would pay for a box-like room with space literally only for a bed in other more friendly establishments, we are a two minute walk from our favorite tomyum street stall, which, as if it could get any better, now offers fruit shakes of all varieties to cool one's spicy tongue. we spent the last week in the northern city of chiang mai, awaiting our next set of indian visas. after crossing our fingers, everything turned out rosily with the babus. it has gotten seriously hot and we are not ashamed to say that we spent much of our time there reading books aloud in our room, hiding from the midday heat and enjoying the only reasonably priced bookstores in all south-east asia. we tried to relive the fun of renting bicycles and lazily exploring lanes, but thai traffic is not nearly as langourous as that of laos or cambodia and we were traffic hazards when we weren't waiting for minutes to cross the streets filled with a continuous flux of cars and more cars. to tell the truth, of enthusiasm for temples and cultural sites has waned considerably, though we did make it to one fairly ancient teak wat and chatted with a monk for an hour. in chiang mai, there is a system set up for the many monks in the city to meet up with foreigners and practice their english, hence the term "monk chat." it seemed to me though that the impromtu chat did us as much good as the monk, as we hardly speak to any one but ourselves. monk chat= alp and ingrid's reintroduction to being sociable people.
ingo

Well we have had a few people that stumbled on our path that we had a good conversation with, but a lot of foreigners are of a different mind set then us. As an example let me offer the Chaing Mai night bazaar, which is supposed to be famous yet all you find in six blocks of things is the same thing one after another. Thailand's openness to tourism has created a tourist industry so well trimmed for the vacationer that the street stalls are selling what you are buying in department stores in America. The other is the hill tribe trekking offered in Chaing Mai, it sounds nice yet it is the most intrusive thing you could do and the travel agents fill up minivans and buses everyday and take gawking tourists, some wanting to go there to smoke opium while others go to buy the traditional clothes off the people's bodies. This activity causes the hill tribe to lose their tradition in the fastest time while they get nothing from the money the travel agents make from taking the gawkers up there. These are the mojority of the people that are in our vicinity. Just how would they feel if their christmas party became a tourist attraction they do not think about. But there are also interesting people, just in very few numbers. So the last party we went to you were there too. But we are getting along wonderfully together and we think of this as the longest date we have been on. What you get out of being on the road for this long cannot be called a vacation although it is true that we are not being productive we are priming ourselves, dreaming and storing up the energy and enthusiasm that is required to accomplish them.
al' pino

ps there are pictures of Laos and Cambodia in the pictures link below. And you can help our alienation by commenting.