One step at a time…

No worries..am doing great ..I have been told am yet another victim of Pai Paralysis which often hits unsuspecting travellers. The symptoms are pretty clear…one does’nt need a med school degree for diagnosis. You sleep peacefully without noticing the little kamakazi mosquitos, you get up refreshed and wanting to raise up and kiss the morning sun, the hammock and you are inseparable like two siamese twins..its hopeless to even imagine that a operation to separate in such case would even be remotely sucessful. What more can I say…its the magical air in Pai which has kept me here for so long. But I think the idea is to get out of here tomorrow before I hit the point of no return.

The little town of Pai is no longer little..as many returning “farang’s” have told me. This sleepy mountain village now is a little hub of tourism. But if one looks around one can see the normal day to day like of mountain folks which does not involve serving rice whisky and making milk shakes. Around me I have noticed some terrace farms which are quite busy right now with the onset of the monsoon rains. Instead of huge tractors like we see in the west..they have little hand driven ones. The process of rice farming seems to be the same everywhere…they are just getting ready to transplant the rice for which they are preparing the fields by ploughing them rigth after the rains. The green of the rice paddies is unmistakable even from a distance.

Things will change here and I know if I come back here in couple of years it will be like the little sleepy village of Sinquerim, Goa where one barely had street lights in 1990.. but 10 years later it was bright with the neon signs of diamond jewellers and restaurants competing for the dollars brought to the Taj resorts close by. How can one expect to see no change when it is we who bring this change. Is it right or is it wrong..I don’t think there is one right answer for this but I think if the government of Pai is not careful the lush forests will slowly perish because of the slash and burn to feed the farang’s who pass by.
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My days in Pai have been very lazy…no other way to describe them. My twin and me have been enjoying the days reading and drinking chinese herbal teas. Nevertheless I made a trip into town to get a Traditional Thai Massage. Boy, was it an experience. It was like assisted yoga…the masseuse used her elbows, knees and hands and pretty much turned me into plastic doll. It seemed like she was having fun torturing me a little. Every couple of mins she would go..”you okay” and I would reply ” I okay”. Here technique reminded me of the massages babies would get if there were staying with my grandmother ( dad’s side). Am not sure if I ever got one of these as a baby but I remember couple of summers that I spent with my grandparents that there were little babies around. My cousin nieces and nephews. Each mid morning they would be mercilessly woken up…oiled up as if they were ready to hit a wrestling match. Hot to luke warm water would be ready and servants would be on the stand by if we needed more. Right in the middle of the house there is a hexagonal area which which very well lit and has a area where one could bathe these little munchkins. Grandma would raise her saree up right about to her thighs..she would sit down in the this area…the little unsuspecting kid would be placed on her legs and then she would start by giving him/her a massage…free of course! The poor kid would start hollering..did’nt suspect this till she pulled one limb after the other..back and forth..the kid would look like a mangled doll A few minutes of this and then they would start pouring the water and do all the things one does to give the baby a bath.

I have to tell you the massage they give these kids puts them to sleep for the whole afternoon leaving the new moms to rest as well. My experience reminded me of these bathing rituals. After the bath there would a strange incense which would be used to dry up the kid and then they would take the evil eye away from him. Similarly, my ancient thai massage was finished with a hot bag of steamed herbs which was applied all over my body. Grandma masseuse would pause to say ” You okay” and of course my only reply was ” I okay”. All was okay…how could it not be.
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“On” my hostess was proud that I was brave enough to get a massage. She is a darling with whom I had some good chats as eventually am the only one who hangs around the guest house after breakfast. Today, there was a bit of commotion as she was not too happy with a American guest who was being a bit too loud last night. She was not a happy camper and she made sure he knew exactly what she expected of him as a guest. The guy seems to have not one but 3 phones, a satellite internet connection and some other high powered alliances. But being a good novice pusedo hindu buddhist that I’m I will not tell tales! Well since am no where close to being a good one I overheard him chatting on the phone with his freind saying he was in America and was delayed coming to Thailand because Ronald Regan had died and since he was freinds with the family he had to be there. Humm…then he tells him about how he is going to buy some property in Mae Hon Son and will be meeting the police chief so that he could be “protected”. After couple more stories from him and about him from “On” I decided to head into town before it was too late and I turned into one of those gossip columnists taking notes.

“On” was entertaining me with tales about the different guests who come by and also some very strange stories from her neighbours next door. Seems like the japanese guest house owners or guests have a fetish for female underwear..not all mind you but only G strings ..so ladies beware. It took them 6 months to solve the mystery of guests missing her undies when they finally saw couple of them by the river with the Japanese guys…she says they used it some kind of rituals..( i can only imagine what it involved). I could not help laughing the whole afternoon and she was so glad that she amused me. She kept calling these guys “yippon” and I asked her what that meant. She educated me to the fact that not all foreigners are “farang’s”..only the ones from west are. The Japanese are “yippon”, the Koreans “Kouli”, the chinese “chin” etc. Am sure that these are not derogatory terms but they don’t sound that endearing either. She did’nt have one for Indians..she said I was the first one of my kind to stay in the guest house.

It funny how the folks in Pai seemed to have this boundry with the visiting “farang’s” They mix with us but if you leave them be they will settle down at the bottom in their quite unassuming way. I really have come to like Pai..the people and the valley are so gentle. Everybody so far has smiled and tried to engage me in a conversation but alas I wish I could pick up more thai. The sourrounding mountains have this very gentle beckoning beaty which is very different from the mountains in Lake Tahoe or Mt.Lassen or even the foothills of the Himalayas. They are more like the gentle ghats of Mahabaleshwar or the lush greens around the beaches of Goa. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be back..maybe I will be another one of those guests who will say “oh things have changed”…but then what in life remains unchanged.

Tags: Thailand

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 26th, 2004 at 7:22 pm and is filed under Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.