Another New Year?!(click)

• The initial plan was to visit Yushan in Naan one week before she returns to Singapore, turns out that there are third parties who were doing the same! Flew in from the familiar part of the north hemisphere, Somlak made her connections with Game’s and Mee’s parents, and surprised me and Yushan with a RCN gathering in the middle of the Naan jungle!

• Yushan’s volunteering work is very different than mine; it was more on the development and preservations on the environment. For the first time, I found out complicated process of agriculture and also how people avoid long hours of work by just burning the remaining of the plants after harvesting.

• Took ten hours or more to reach Naan, the province very north of Thailand, ( read a good book: Mister Pip) then the very next day, Game’s father brought us south to the Sukhothai Province, the oldest city/kingdom of Thailand, or so it was speculated.

• Besides taking all the MTV shots with the Historical Park of Sukhothai, acknowledge by the World Heritage of UNESCO, we had endless conversation in the car, during meals, in the park; I only got to know Somlak so much more besides the fact that she was the House Mentor of Finland House, not to mention all the juicy memories she has about all the Finland House members back to the time beyond my existence there!

• The most beautiful golden Buddha in Pisanulok, the province next to Shukhothai, stood right infront of me- it was believed that the god has sent a craftsman from heaven to make this golden statue and he disappeared once it was done! I wish I could have a longer glimpse on it for we had to catch a train which was scheduled half an hour later, only to find out that it has been delayed for 4 hours~!

• An actual road trip. I hopped in my colleague’s car half way in Kam Peng Phet from Sukhothai and there I was, taking on a road trip, stopping in every province along the way to see the most-talk-about-temples, food stalls, fruit stalls, and local snacks. Hey, that’s what Thailand is made out of- temples and food!

• Wat Rong Khun, an outstanding temple designed by the contemporary artist, which related me directly to the Sagrada de Familia in Barcelona. A pleasant surprise in Chiang Rai. How come it has not gotten as much attention as the Cathedral?

• On the other hand, Bangkok has turned into a strange city. A city so quiet and slow. The smooth traffic and the unfamiliar accent from the ticket collectors all showed signs of the huge change of crowd. The city was abandoned for home, and the outskirts find job slots to fill in during the peak period of traveling, half of the city is gone.

• One place to another takes only half of the regular timing, and the ticket collector’s friendly outskirt’s accent reexamined the distance between the attitudes of the Bangkok citizens. This temporary friendliness of the city only last for a few days, and it’s a bit annoying, because you know the familiar smoky, nosy, noisy Bangkok will be back again.