Faithful Tuk Tuk Driver
Nice to have someone faithful to me. I trust Supoat, in his 50’s, with soft face and warm bright eyes. I call him when I need him to drive me somewhere in his Tuk Tuk.
Most of the people living outside of the moat that surrounds the center of town are illegal Shan refugees from the border between Thailand and Burma. Today, he took me to the Chiang Mai Shan temple where very young Shan boy- children are being initiated into monkhood. They are carried in a musical procession through the streets and around the temple on the shoulders of young men. They are dressed in sparkling tribal ceremonial dress and their faces are made up like girls with lipstick and rouge. Nearby drummers are making rhythmic music. I am the only farang in the crowd and draw curious looks.
My masseuse suggested today I eat a northern Thai soup called Kang Cae for my health, a soup with many different vegetables including two different kinds of eggplant and 15 different herbs. Supoat joined me tonight at the “Huenphen,” a lovely upscale restaurant specializing in northern Thai cuisine. Learning spoken and written English in school as a small boy he got the best grades in his class he says proudly. A Chinese couple next to our table says not a word to one another during their dinner…listening to our conversation in English…seeming to be deeply disturbed at seeing us together. I do not have a good feeling about them. They leave in a huff.
Supoat suggests taking me two hours north to his home town, Fang, early tomorrow in his new (used) Peugeot car purchased with money down given him by his niece’s husband who is a mechanic in Texas. We will visit his mother and father in Fang. He will drive me another hour on up to Tha Tan, a tiny village at the Burma border, drop me off and return to Fang to spend the night with his parents and rake the leaves in their yard. As the youngest of his siblings he is responsible for taking care of his mother, he says. He will return to Tha Tan at noon the next day and pick me up to go further on to visit tribal villages before returning to Chiang Mai. I am looking forward to being out of the hot noisy city and getting into the cool mountains.
Tags: Chiang Mai, Festivals & Ceremonies, Food, Minority Groups, Restaurants, Taxis, Thailand, Transportation, Villages
Zoe
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