Thailand or Idiot Land? Swimming in strange waters.

"I have a file labled 'Thai Troubles.' In it are newspaper articles and various official reports saying that out of twenty-one million children, one in five suffers from physical or mental abuse
...that one of every three billboards is illegal and unsafe
...that there are up to three thousand high-rise buildings in Bangkok that pose "grave risk" of collapse
...that more than half the vehicles on the road in the capital exceed the legal exhaust fume level
...that only 104 of the two thousand fresh food markets in the country meet hygiene standards set by the Public Health Ministry and ninety percent of the meat sold in markets comes from dirty and unsanitary slaughterhouses
...that more than four hundred species of wildlife are on the brink of extinction
...that since 1932, when the absolute monarchy was replaced by a constitutional monarchy, the nation has had twenty-nine governments, twenty coups d'etat and seventeen constitutions
...that according to the Health Department, more than half of all public toilets in Thailand are unhygenic, smelly, dirty and damp."
"Motorcyclists use the sidewalks as if they were lanes in the roadway and there are so many vendors and other obstructions, pedestrians are frequently forced to walk in the streets with some of the most horrendous traffic in the world. (And likely encounter an elephant!) Thailand has the highest rate of road fatalities in the world and no public ambulances. When cops and military officers are caught doing something illegal they aren't charged and tried, they are assigned to an 'inactive post.' Thais don't walk, they meander, drifting all over the footpaths, looking in one direction while moving in another, bumping into people, like children seeming unaware that anyone else might be nearby. Two recent Miss Thailands were raised in the United States and were unable to speak Thai fluently. Businesses spend a fortune on advertising, signage, menus, etc., where the attempts at English spelling and grammar are so mangled they are as humerous as they are sad. Order a meal in a restaurant and the cook will put the easy-to-prepare dishes on first, the longer-to-cook and the more complex orders last, so that diners who came in together get served one at a time and they don't get to eat together."
-from Thailand Confidential by Jerry Hopkins
It's all true. Every bit of what Jerry Hopkins said and then some!
I have my own collection of newspaper clippings, some of which I perused before writing this entry.
You may have heard this one, since it got international coverage on the web and in some newspapers. There was a problem with a percentage of Bangkok police officers who were coming to work late, parking in restricted areas, etc. The solution? To make the offenders wear pink 'Hello Kitty' armbands. It was thought that the blow to their machismo would give them pause.
Here's another: A huge number of body products, from deoderants to skin creams, contain whitening agents. Dark skin is considered ugly, white skin is considered beautiful, and on any given day I can see the students on my campus scurrying to the next shaded area while holding a paper above their heads to prevent that disfiguring tan.
The Dean of the Faculty of Education at my university receives grants to use towards educational projects for the students. What projects does she create? Cleaning the administration building and spending numerous hours making merit at the local temple. She claims it will give the students moral fiber. And, of course, it doesn't use any of the money she recieves. There have been other issues with this Dean and her lack of educational guidance. But in this culture, the students aren't supposed to question their elders. And the other 'elders,' people in positions of authority, do not like conflict and do not like to admit that there are any problems.
And: Recently 4,000 soldiers were sent into the south where there has been ongoing violence for years now. They were all issued mandatory protective amulets, with a 3-day jail sentence if they did not wear them. Of course, most of the military was already well-stocked. It is not uncommon for a soldier to go on patrol wearing upwards of 20 magical talismans.
And the King? You can praise him or you can remain silent, but there is no middle ground. The Les Majeste laws allow up to 15 years in prison for anyone who defames, insults or threatens the King or the Royal Family. Recently a professor at a Thai university posed the following question to his students: "Do you think the monarchy is necessary for Thai society? How should it adapt to a democratic system? Please debate." He was promptly reported to the police by another professor who felt that this topic posed a "threat to society." And a dean from the university commented, "In this country, this kind of thing is against the law. If he wants to ask these questions he should go and live in England or Australia or somewhere where it is not against the law."
U-Tube, the online video-sharing website, was blocked for an extended period due to content that was disrespectful to the King. And the biography, "The King Never Smiles," has quitely been banned in Thailand because it shows the King as less than perfect.
I could go on and on. Without doubt, Thailand is an idiotic country with a warped people. I continually come across ignorance, faulty logic, sheep-like behavior and corruption.
But:
I suspect that I see these things so 'clearly' because I have not been conditioned since birth to accept and accomodate them. I was raised with a different world-view.
"...what we know, or think we know, about our own culture is not necessarily perceived in the same way by culturally different people. In other words, we may see ourselves as holding a particular value or cultural trait, but then describe that trait in only the most positive ways. Those looking at us from the outside, however, are more likely to see some of the more negative implications as well.
-from Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective by Thomson Wadsworth
I think that all countries are idiotic and peopled with warped citizens. At least, they are if you are looking from the paradigm of a different (albeit equally idiotic) culture.
I can imagine a Thai blogger temporarily living in the United States: "Can you imagine, people actually spend hours just lying in the sun hoping to darken their skin? It's rude to wear a hat in a restaurant, but what does wearing a hat have to do with politeness? When people are displeased about something they raise their voices to each other, even in public. Personal cleanliness is deplorable here. Instead of squatting, people sit on a commonly used toilet seat, and after using the toilet they actually smear their bottoms with tissue. They believe in a god born of a virgin mother who lived on earth 2,000 years ago..... And, if they even think that you might be a terrorist, they can put you in jail without a trial for as long as they want!"
I also wonder what it would be like to attend a U.S. history class in a neutral country. I wonder how they would depict slavery, Native-American genocide, McCarthyism and questionable international policies.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness and many of our people need it sorely on those accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.
-Mark Twain
Cultures are different, and some of the things we take to be moral imperatives or, at the least, common sense, are actually fairly arbitrary. Joseph Campbell said something to the effect that, "myths are all religions except for yours."
But we are in this mortal coil together, and as human beings our shared reality is much more similar than it is different. As Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell wrote in their anti-war manifesto:
"There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal as human beings to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death."
Personally, I love the quirks in Thailand. I love seeing a family of four go by on a 110 motorcycle, with the woman sitting side saddle and the two kids talking on cell phones. I love seeing ten water buffalo running down the freeway and having no clue where they came from or where they're going. Sometimes things are frustrating, but that's true all over. Sometimes things are unfair, but that's true all over, too.
I guess what I want to say, as much to me as to you, is to try and take things lightly. "Don't sweat the small stuff." Try not to let our differences blind us to our common humanity. Simplistically put: Smile instead of frown, both on the inside and out.
I'll wrap this post up with one more quote from "Thailand Confidential." Jerry Hopkins concludes his book by saying:
"In any case, most farangs(foreigners) tend to flock together. We wheel our psychological wagons in a circle, and hang out with other farangs most of the time, constantly comparing notes, praising and criticizing our hosts by turn, going home and coming back again, always shaking our heads in amazement; some are so bold as to write books. And however many conclusions we reach, in the end we likely haven't a clue."

Experiencing the West with the One You Love (a Valentine's Blog)

Hello again from the Old West - also known as Arizona. When we last wrote, we were developing a bad case of the Chrismas spirit. Christmas came and went and was very, very busy! We thought Santa came by way of reindeer, but when you work on a ranch, he comes by stagecoach - complete with horses! Our biggest Christmas miracle and present was our engagement! As of Christmas morning, we are officially engaged to be married, and we couldn't be more thrilled and excited about our future!

In other news, Arizona has been full of adventure and surprises. We have visited the site of the West's most famous gun battle - the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, complete with a daily re-enactment of the gunfight with Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. We even witnessed the famous thump of Morgan Earp dying at the Historama presentation (seriously, Google it if you haven't been there. That alone is worth the trip.). We have seen wild burros climbing in the mountains between the saguaro cacti, javelinas (wild pigs) running around the ranch, a baby calf frolicking among the horses, and we have seen snakes and lizards coming back from hibernation (still no sign of a tarantula, though!). We have visited several ghost towns and old gold mining operations and imagined what life was like back in the good old days. We have gone horseback riding out in the desert with real cowboys, ye haw! We went to the Grand Canyon to visit some friends we worked with in Jackson, Wyoming, and Erin rode a mule down into the depths of the Canyon (and was completely terrified looking over the edge in the ice and snow the entire 7 hours!). We volunteered at the Super Bowl, and met some fun people from Phoenix. We also met Spike, the Super Bowl mascot, Boomer Esiason (Erin's childhood crush!), Jerry Rice (and told him that we cheered for him at a live taping of "Dancing with the Stars" a couple years ago), the "Bus" - Jerome Bettis, and Josh McCown (Go Raiders!). We volunteered with the Salvation Army and had more fun passing out presents to families to give to their children than we had opening our own presents (except Erin's diamond ring - see above!). We went to the zoo to see the baby white tigers and the other zoo to see the Zoo Lights (who knew Phoenix had 2 zoos?!). We rode in the Gold Rush Days parade in a float made to look like a train from the Old West. We even went to see Caroline Kennedy and Barack Obama speak and came away feeling inspired and excited about the future of our country. We also went to see Asleep at the Wheel at Wickenburg's famous Del Webb Center.

Arizona has been so surprising for us in so many ways. We never expected the mountains and the snow here. We never expected to be COLD here - although spring is definitely on it's way; bring on the tank tops and flip flops! We never expected there to be so much here we want to see and do. We can't wait to see the desert wildflowers bloom and all the animals come back. It's nice to hear the birds singing, as they all return from wherever they went this winter! We've never really lived anywhere with actual cowboys, and Erin still gets a kick out of seeing big belt buckles, boots, Stestons and hearing the clank-clank-clank of spurs wherever we go (no, Begee has not yet purchased a big belt buckle of his very own!). Our jobs have been challenging at times, and it's interesting to think that we have less than three months left here (considering most seasons only last 3 months!).

Since Valentine's Day is tomorrow - our 5th one together! - we wish you all love and happiness, the chance to live the life you dream of with the one you've always dreamt of. We're so lucky to live the life we do with each other, and we are so excited about what the future may hold! We wish you all good travels and a Happy Valentine's Day!

Way Up North - Volunteering for the Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race Next Week

My wife and I worked as backcountry rangers in what was then a new National Park Service area in Alaska called Yukon Charley Rivers National Preserve in the early 80's. We thought we'd be living in a wall tent but ended up working out of an old roadhouse called the Slaven Cabin during the summers of 1982 and 1983.

The cabin is out there - miles from any town or road - on the banks of the Yukon River between Circle and Eagle, Alaska. We haven't been back since 1983 and we're headed there this Sunday, February 10th, to volunteer for the Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race.

Back in the day, the cabin was a place for sternwheelers to put on wood in the summer and for the mail-carrier dog teams to warm up and layover in the winter. There was also an active gold mine with a dredge nearby on Coal Creek. The mine was still operating when we were there in the 80's tho the dredge had been shut down. Since our time the gold mine has shut down and the mine, the dredge AND the cabin have been turned over to the Park Service.

The refurbished Slaven Cabin is a resting place and dog-drop on the 1,000 mile route of the Yukon Quest. Our mission will be to help Park Service folks keep the fire going, the food warm and maintain a hole in the up-to-6-foot-deep ice of the Yukon so that we can haul water for the dogs. If it snows we get to help pack the snow on the river so planes can land and to try to keep the race-route in decent shape. Mushers can come in any time of the night or day so we'll have a night shift and a day shift.

The race runs for 1,000 miles between Fairbanks, Alaska and Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. They flip the start every other year and this year it starts in Fairbanks.

We're psyched to go back after all these years, and even more so because there's a Cool Works connection with one of the mushers. Cool Works helped Julie Estey find her way to Alaska. I met her in Girdwood a couple of years ago. She left a perfectly good cubicle in Chicago to mush dogs in Jackson Hole and then became the Executive Director of the Yukon Quest for a few years. She gave that up last spring so that she can run the race this year. We'll see her at the start on Saturday and again 300 miles down the trail when she gets to the Slaven Cabin.

Check out her Musher Profile and track the race.

It was 42 below zero in Fairbanks yesterday. This will be a wake-up call, even coming from Yellowstone.

The winner of the Quest last year was Lance Mackey who also won the Iditarod - a truly super-human feat given that both races go for over 1,000 miles and there's not that much time between them.

We'll be at about mile 300 at the Slaven Cabin Sunday the 10th through the 15th or so, whatever it takes to see the last musher through and get the place cleaned up. We hope to have some stories and photos to share.

Current Time and Temp in Fairbanks

Feb 22 - Colette and I are back in Seattle, working our way back to Montana tomorrow. Twelve mushers have finished the race, 3 are still mushing and 8 mushers scratched. They bill it as the "Toughest Sled Dog Race in the World". I won't argue that.

Here's a video of the race start - it was between 40 and 50 below zero:

Find more videos like this on My CoolWorks

and here's Michelle Phillips leaving the Slaven Cabin. 300 miles down and 700 to go. She ended up finishing an impressive 4th place.


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Check out the slideshow on Flickr and look for more vids and stories soon at My CoolWorks.

My favorite photo....

Exploring the Ancient Civilizations of Sri Lanka (Part 1)

I had come to Sri Lanka expecting a week-long vacation from the trials of traveling in India. Yet, in my first two days, I experienced such welcoming hospitality that I knew my stay would be longer. For in this small island nation I had realized the reason for my journey to this part of the world. The thrill of discovery and anticipation of adventure rushed through my blood knowing that each moment that lay before me would be another I would never forget.

I left on a train bound for Anaradhapura, the original heart of Sri Lankan civilization. I quickly found that traveling alone, be it on the bus or train, would put me face to face with the country's greatest beauty- its people. For on that train ride, I met the most amazing people and shared in such unforgettable moments. During that 6-hour ride, we passed through a stunning landscape of palm-covered countryside, lily-pad ponds, and ornate Buddhist temples. I had discovered that the beauty of Sri Lanka would not only be found it its natural splendors, but in the wonderful pride and generosity of its people.

I woke in Anaradhapura as the first rays of the sun touched the town, eager to explore an area from which Sinhalese kings had ruled the country for over 1000 years. Of the Sri Lankan capitals, Anaradhapura is the oldest, most extensive, and also the most important. Between 247-207 BC it rose to great importance becoming a glamorous and glittering city, only to fall from a South Indian invasion- a fate that was to befall the city repeatedly for more than 1000 years.

The ancient city of Anaradhapura is rather spread out so I rented a bike and pedaled past people on their way to work and school. Crossing the bridge into the ancient city I got my first taste of the splendors that awaited me, glimpsing two massive domes rising high above the trees, my first two stops of the day.Entering down a walkway past six tall stone pillars and countless monkeys, I approached King Dutugemunu's finest construction, Ruvanvelisaya. Guarded by a wall of hundreds of stone elephants, Ruvanvelisaya incurred much damage from Indian invaders which lowered its height to 55 meters, considerably less than the original. The land around the dagoba is a pleasant green park dotted with patches of ruins, remains of ponds and pools, and collections of columns and pillars, all picturesquely leaning in different directions.
A beautiful woodlands path carried me to Lankarama Temple where I met a sweet and gentle man, a former policeman of 77 years who now dedicates his life to the study of Buddhism. He had a welcoming smile and friendly personality, talking to me about the need for meditation in life. "Worry will just make more worries," he told me. "But meditation will set you free."

As the heat of the morning fell upon dusty dirt roads, I ventured into a vast woodlands area containing many ruins and ancient sites in the cool shade of the trees. This area once contained simple yet grand monasteries and residential complexes, but now little remains except moss-covered stone walls, free-standing pillars, ancient stone walkways and a few small stupas. I meandered around the peaceful woodlands setting listening to the chirping of birds, squealing of monkeys and observing an iguana so large I jumped onto a stone wall in fear.


On my way to the Sacred Bodhi tree, I pedaled next to a nice man of 55 years who spoke English and German and worked as a guide. He liked to study U.S. history, he told me, and his favorite figure was George Washington. Together we talked for quite some time, mostly at the Archaeological Museum where he translated for the sweet lady behind the ticket counter. We discussed many issues, the woman asking many questions about customs, dress and distances in America. He emphasized "no sex before marriage" in Sri Lanka and you could see the concern on both of their faces as we talked about divorce in America and they asked what happens to the children. Such subjects are difficult to explain in a country that places such high value on the family unit and often makes me appreciate the wonderful family with which I have been blessed.
My final stop of the day was the Sacred Bodhi Tree. A long walk down a sealed path brought me to one of the most sacred spots in Sri Lanka. This huge tree, set on a large platform and protected by a railing festooned with prayer flags, is said to have grown from a cutting of the tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment, and has a connection to the very basis of Sinhalese religion and serves as a reminder of the force that inspired creation of all buildings at Anaradhapura. This tree is the oldest historically authenticated tree in the world and has been tended to by an uninterrupted succession of guardians for over 2000 years. I removed my shoes, bought an offering of flowers, and joined the many worshippers who surrounded the tree- a perfect ending to a day of exploration, both pyshically and spiritually, in Anaradhapura.

After an afternoon nap, I hopped in a rickshaw and made the journey to Mihintale, a mountain of enormous significance to the Sinhalese because it is where Buddhism originated in Sri Lanka. I climbed the 1840 stone steps to watch the sunset from where I had an obstructed view of the countryside and the towering stupas at Anaradhapura. It was a beautiful sight, the surrounding mountains and countryside bathed in dim light. Then as the last bit of light faded I climbed another staircase to the large white meditating Buddah that dominates the hill, pausing to ring the bell and make my wish. As I descended the steps, I smiled to myself and wondered, "What else could I possibly wish for in this life?"