I am Sam in Siam!: Chiang Mai and a Thai Thanksgiving

Along with most of GHAP, I spent the better part of November in Chiang Mai, Thailand, taking a Burmese language course with expert John Okell from the University of London. The beginner class was composed of a mix of people—volunteers working on Burmese issues in Mae Sot, English teachers of Burmese students in Chiang Mai, a photojournalist, and others simply interested in learning Burmese. The course was comprised of both script and speaking class. We learned to read and write in just 8 days-- I was surprised that we were able pick it up so quickly! Here’s an example of Burmese script:

I can’t tell you what it all means, but I can read it. And I could hopefully write down the syllables if someone was reading it aloud. When writing, it’s extremely important that you make your letters very circular (“more like soccer balls than rugger balls,” as John Okell would say).

After a couple of weeks, I can also ask some simple questions and get by in tourist-type situations. Here’s a sample conversation (These spellings are a bit off, and apologies if you don’t have the font and they appear as random symbols on your computer):

ဗမာ့စကာ့း ပြောတသလာ့း။
Bama saga pyaw-daq-thala? (Do you speak Burmese?)

ဟိုဟ်ကဲ့။ နဲ့နဲ့ ပြောတပါ့တဲ။
Houq-keh. Neh-neh pyaw-daq-pa-deh. (Yes, I can speak a little.)

ဘာ့လူမျိုးလဲ။
Ba lu-myo leh? (What nationality are you?)

အမေရိကလူမြိုးပါ့။
Ameri-ka lu-myo-ba. ( I’m American.)

ဟံဘာ့ဂါ့စာ့းတယနော်။
Han-ba-ga sa-deh-naw? ( You do eat hamburgers, don’t you?)

မစာ့းပါ့ဘူး။ ဟော့ဒေါ့ စာ့းပါ့တယ်။
Masa-ba-bu. Haw-daw sa-ba-deh. (No, I don’t. I eat hotdogs.)

There are tones in Burmese, so you have to watch your pronunciation. A word pronounced in the high, creaky tone can mean something completely different from the same word pronounced in the low tone—which can lead to embarrassing situations.
Already, I’m noticing abundant Burmese in Mae Sot. If it’s not our partners’ first language, it’s often their second, and many signs around town abound with Burmese script. I even found myself practicing my Burmese as I waited to have my bike fixed yesterday morning in Mae Sot’s Muslim district. Unaware that it was Muslim Eid, a major holiday, I peddled in to find two large cows being skinned and partitioned in someone’s carport—blood everywhere. Of course, the bike shop men were happy to fix my bike anyway, even though I was obviously interrupting, and as I waited, I began speaking English with a Burmese man. Wanting to be hospitable, he led me into a nearby house where five Burmese women ushered me to the table and immediately began spooning large amounts of khow suey (Burmese noodles) and rice pudding onto my plate. They were very impressed with the limited amount of Burmese that I could speak, and responded with heaping more food onto my plate. Needless to say, I had a full breakfast.

As for Chiang Mai, spending two and a half weeks there almost felt like I had re-entered Western civilization. Nearly everyone I met spoke some English. There were coffee shops with Wifi, burgers and milkshakes, New York style pizza by the slice, Mexican food, French toast, malls, sandwiches, chocolate cakes, Western toilets with a reliable supply of toilet paper, large pick-up Frisbee games, even Starbucks charging Western prices for their coffee. At an art gallery opening we attended, there wasn’t a Thai person in sight. It’s actually quite easy to immerse yourself in Western culture within such a large Thai city--almost too easy.

Still, during our two weeks, we managed to explore a lot of what Chiang Mai has to offer. I tried the special northern Thai noodles, khao soi, went for morning runs around the old city moat (originally built in the 1200s), tried Thai-style karaoke, and shopped for hours at the massive Sunday market, which takes up a large part of the old city every Sunday afternoon and evening. Thai hill-tribe clothing, bags, and jewelry were everywhere. There were tiny children performing “traditional” dances (see below), jazz bands, paper lanterns, Karen silver, chocolate waffles, mangoes and sticky rice (a northern specialty), and in case you got tired, half-hour foot massages on the side of the street.

A girl dancing at the Sunday Market in Chiang Mai

We also explored several of Chiang Mai’s 300 or so wats, including the famous Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, perched on a mountain overlooking the city. The temple dates from 1383, and its builders allegedly chose its site by placing a relic of the Buddha on a white elephant’s back and letting it roam until it trumpeted, lay down, and died—which occurred on Doi Suthep.

A woman praying in Wat Doi Suthep

At Wat Chedi Luang, the central wat of Chiang Mai, we sat down at “monk chat,” a program that allows foreigners to learn more about Buddhism, and gives monks a chance to practice their English. We talked to a 23-year-old monk for a while about life in the monastery, and asked him questions about Buddhism. Buddhists can become a monk—or quit—whenever they please, which means a lot of monks join the order, get the excellent free education, and then go on with their lives. When I asked our friend, however, if he thought he would always be a monk, he answered, “Do you think you’ll always be a human?” For some, it appears the choice is pretty clear.

Katherina and Maria with our Monk Chat friends

The oldest wat in Chiang Mai, Wat Chiang Man

Back in Mae Sot, we put together two fairly satisfying Thanksgiving dinners considering that Mae Sot doesn’t have a) turkeys or b) ovens. We bought a rotisserie chicken (feet still attached!), made stove-top stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, candied carrots, and substituted pumpkin soup for sweet potatoes. And for dessert, I’m proud to say I made fried apple pie with homemade crust (made up of mostly butter). You can see my proud product in the picture below. For our second dinner, we invited our Karen partners at KDHW, and they at least pretended to like the food—but definitely enjoyed the company. It was a fun chance to share a bit of American culture with them.
I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! Until next time…