Back to visit the Yanawins in Phrae, Northern Thailand
Dec 9-13, 2015 |
| Teak Trees in Northern Thailand |
For cyclists, details of this trip can be seen here -->
Hotel info, route info...
After school ended in March, I knew I would have to find a new place to teach. My 4 years in Chumpuanghad come to a close, I was not quite sure what I would do next, and I decided to take some time to think about my next move. I ended up visiting my family for 3 months, and then coming back to Thailand and cycling for 3 months. I visited a few old friends in different provinces, made many, many new friends, and worked several English Camps to both fund things along the way, and get my fix of hanging out with Thai young people. The staple needs of my life this year have been
- time spent with students during the day
- time spent reading the Bible in the morning
- cycling in any and all free moments
- massive amounts of fruit to fuel all of the above.
I am not quite finished writing a post, but I have gone almost a whole year now of eating only fish and eggs for meat. Most of my calories have come from fruit, and I have felt great - not missing the pork/chicken/beef at all really... Read about some awesome fruit recipes here!! --> (link)
After a run of more than 20 different English Camps with the always awesome Dragonfly English Camp team, we ended our 3 months together in Northern Thailand - a 3-camp run between the provinces of Phayao and Phrae.
Lovely smaller places in Northern Thailand, both of these were provinces I had yet to visit, and I loved the town of Phrae. It ended up keeping me the longest of any place over these months. I stayed for 10 days, working 6, riding for 4, enjoying the extremely clean, well layed-out, historically significant-but-currently-still-small-somewhat-out-of-the-way, city of Phrae! Very attractive to say the least. I got job offers from 2 different schools while working there for the week... Hmm. Still thinking about them daily...
Thailand has 77 provinces in total, and in my mind, I can only count a province as 'visited' if I have a) slept there, b) done something showing me a side of that province which is different than others AND c) had at least one conversation with a local giving me at least the smallest insight into the local culture of the area.
By this method of keeping track, Payao and Phrae were provinces numbers 57 and 58 for me. I am not trying to visit every single province, but if it happens eventually then I will be a very lucky guy to have had the chance to learn and experience that much more in and about the country I love.
Anyways, here's a few reasons (in picture form) of why one might like Phrae...
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| First off, bikers will enjoy the very smooth, well-maintained, super steep hill climbs! No this is not a tricky photo angle, this hill was around 30% grade... refusing to walk, I zig-zagged the whole way up. |
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| The last cow catching up with its herd, this group took so long that I just sat down in the little Sala to watch and wait... At 6;30 AM the weather really was lovely!! |
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| Coming down a steep hill, suddenly there was only one lane! The first warning sign appears just 10 meters before about 20 meters of the left lane is completely missing (landslide?) VERY lucky there was no oncoming traffic. |
After English camp one day, I was wanting to find some forested hills, easy enough to do in the North, and I was a bit startled to find this guy riding behind me. Coming from Africa, but living in Thailand (and now quite used to the way things are in Thailand, in this case I am meaning how safe life is here)... I was a bit confused. I guess Lance Armstrong could just decide to outrun someone, and there would be nothing the other person could do about it... but normal people can't really 'run away' from someone else climbing the same hill on a turn-less road, heading the same direction. So even if my instinct was to protect myself, try to get away from a potential bike-mugger (my African life-training going overboard?) well, it was not really an option. So I let the Thai training take over, and I just smiled and waited. This guy came up beside me, I noticed he had a very nice bicycle (Cervelo S3), and I figured that no one looking to do harm would be riding such a cool bike. That might sound ridiculous but trust me, he has a very, very nice bike. Thus started another awesome adventure getting to know some locals through cycling...
"Hey man, can you speak Thai?" and then the same, but in Thai, "สวัสดีครับ พูดไทยได้ไหมครับ"
"Yes I can, Thai is good, English is fine too!" ได้อยู่ครับ ไทยก็ได้ อังกฤาก็ได้
"Oh Ho! Perfect! "คุณมาจากไหนครับ เป๊นทีเช่อร์หรือเปล่า"
(Where'd you come from? Are you a teacher?)
"ปั่นทาแต่โคราชครับ ผมสอนที่นุ่นครับผม"
(I rode from Korat, I teach there)
I'll stop the transcription, and just say that he took an immediate liking to me, and took me for some of the coolest bike routes and meals of local food afterwards, EXACTLY the things that I look for when I am in a new area. He also has a son, 13 years old, so basically in meeting him and visiting his home, I had all the things that I look for in a trip taken care of. Time to hang with kids, time to ride, time to check out local food WITH local people, and never ending conversation about the differences between the Northern lifestyle and that of the Esaan (where I live). It was awesome. So awesome.
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| Another stellar meal with Pee B'ya, here you see some fresh greens on the side, eaten with a stunningly spicy Nam Prik Ka, and steamed mushrooms. The center dish is deep fried tofu (the word 'vegan' does not at all mean 'healthy' in some cases :), and then on my plate I chose red rice with Laab Jay (a dry roasted meaty herbaceous masterpiece, in this case tofu), and some spinach stir fried with basil, garlic, and tons of bird's eye chilies. |
We proceeded to climb some great hills together, have a late night chat, hang out with his son, then also with his friends, some family time... Grew to be good friends in a hurry. Oh! This guy also respected that I want to only eat fish, and he took me to probably the best vegan restaurant that I have yet ever had the pleasure to eat, to feast... And yes I did just say I eat fish, but this is seen pretty much to be vegetarianism in Thailand... :) Also I did use the word try, not that I refuse, because even though I only eat fish on my own, I think respecting the parents of students who cook food for me at their homes is more important than holding to a strict diet. So again, I am always happy to meet and share meals with people like this guy, not afraid to heartily enjoy his own normal meat-filled dishes while I order a meal of meat-less mixed vegetables with extra chilies, chili paste, and fresh veggies on the side.
He also made sure that I ate well and got as much sleep as I could, because he was not taking no for an answer after inviting me for a 175km ride to his favorite restaurant... Yep. Exactly the way I think as well, nothing better to have as your destination than a special dish in a special location, 55 miles and 11 hill-climbs away! We met up at 530AM, 4 other guys as well, and took the main road South to Den Chai, and then back roads to the district of Wang Chin, Sukothai province. Enjoyed a bowl of the unbeatable sweet, sour, and spicy Northern Curry Noodles (Kao Soi), a plate of fried rice each, some sports drinks, a coffee (yeah it was a long lunch break)... and then took turns out-sprinting each other over the hills all the way home.
You can see the map here (https://www.strava.com/activities/386001904)
This part is not important for those unfamiliar with Strava, but we all prepared to race through a particularly long segment on the way back. I think it was about a 20 minute section, total elevation difference of about 300 meters, and I managed to get 2nd out of our group of 6. I very rarely have a chance to enjoy the fact that it takes me a long time to warm up, usually group rides aren't long enough for me to exercise my only advantage (I'm not a very strong rider but I have endurance) but in this case my energy boost came on just at the right time, it was more funny than anything as I was riding my mountain bike and all the others had cool and flashy road bikes, I really shouldn't have beat any of them...
By the way, Strava is a very cool app/program to track rides/runs and use for training, and you can save routes, upload pictures, cheer on your friends, and set personal goals by week, month, or year. You can compete, for fun or for bragging rights, against people on your street, your team, your country, and in groups all around the world. A friend described it as "Facebook for athletes." I fell a bit too much in love with this program lately, and my only New Years resolution this year was to not feel the need to upload every single ride to Strava. And, if you have Strava, I would love to follow you! Please leave a link below! My user name is Joel Wayne Bruner...
This is a lot of writing, but this story is only halfway done! As cool as this trip was, part of my new friend's mission it seemed (and he even said it openly on our last day riding together), was that he wanted to take care of me well enough that I had no choice but to move to Phrae within a year, take a permanent but part-time teaching job, and cruise the hills with him every afternoon. I can't say that this would be a bad idea in the least, very attractive actually as Phrae is also the cleanest province I have visited in all of Thailand, but I still feel a love for Esaan that I want to see through to the end, however long it may be.
I probably reached for my wallet in vain a full 20 times, never using a single baht while hanging out with him, as he treated me to coffee, local foods at the market (a few of which I had not seen before!), drinks, snacks while riding,... I got the full treatment, way, way more than I deserve. Yes, Thai people are famous for smiling, famous for their generosity, but this was just above and beyond. This guy really was the best, and I am still so thankful for our meeting...
... and our continued friendship!
After leaving, he had picked New Years as the ideal time when I should come back to visit, and last week I was able to keep my promise. We had a few days off work at the University, and I took a few additional days off in order to be able to ride the 500km between my house and his on the way to visit.
As before, the time hanging out together was great, and I got to meet even a few more of his local friends, practice a bit more Northern dialect with them, (Esaan and Kam Meuang share many words, its both fun, funny, and just straight up cool to find them out along the way!) and of course share some more great local food (Sorry Esaan chefs, but the Northern version of Laab just dominates!). I was not so up for a huge cycling trip, seeing as I had just had 3 big days of riding to get to Phrae this time, but it was great that he understood. We did still go for a great 2 hour ride in the hills, 3 guys on MTB and 4 on road bikes.
I could not get enough of the small villages right up against the steep forested backdrops, I know they are pretty to look at, magical in fact, but wow it would be a dangerous place to build a village. I wonder if they had terraced in the past and now changed their cropping techniques or... anyways, I hope no landslides visit this area anytime soon. We rode on the only paved road in the area, so this was quite a local spot. Very lovely cycling, strictly motorcycle traffic so it was not as scary coming back down. Before I fell in love with hill-climbing, I used to think that the ascent was the bad part. Now I know that the ascent is fun, makes you work for it, is worth it in the end, steep hills are a great thing to have nearby (I have none near me, the closest place with greater than a 4% grade is exactly 81km each way, not ideal for a workday-morning session)... it is the descent that now has me scared! Some hills are so steep that coming to a full stop wouldn't even be possible. It makes me respect the pros even more, (fearlessly reaching speeds of up to 100kph during this year's Tour de France!) some descents are literally life-threatening were there to be a lazy driver coming up cutting across lanes, or a dog, a child, a cow, a washed-out back road with no fore-warning sign... Just as one should never jump from a high place into water without knowing the terrain underneath, the same idea totally applies to descending steep hills on a bicycle. In new areas, at the least try to look at your GPS every few km's to try and prepare for what rough spots/sharp turns might be up ahead... And, if you are wondering which lights to buy, helmet, rear light, handlebar - get all of them! And on bike trips, the schedule for re-charging your lights should be a very high priority on the daily to-do list!
Arriving back at Pee B'ya's house, I heard a friend at a shop nearby shout, "Oh, the same foreigner, what is he doing coming back here?" My friend simply replied, "Yep, he just came to keep his promise." Made me feel good to be able to keep my word, in the life of a traveler it is only too common to have great experiences once and only once, and never have a chance to revisit. Of course not many people are fortunate enough to travel to new places, and then have the free time to revisit old places while still planning new trips in the limited time off of work, off of responsibilities... So I will just say I am enjoying this time in my life to the fullest. Learning from new friends like this, taking the chances while I can to follow up on the great things to which I have been privileged to participate... Life is good, Cycling is good, God is good. This trip was a good one.
I cycled to Phrae, but I took the bus back. I usually end up doing that on the longer trips, and I prefer the train but this part of Thailand is between the 2 North-South lines. There's just not enough time to cycle both ways, and also of course I was wanting to spend as much time as possible with the people that I went to visit. Cycling is awesome, but I have to remember that it serves a purpose in my life, it is not the ends but a means. A great means, with tons of benefits on its own... but the people along the way are always the best part to any trip. To reach out to others, to meet others, sometimes just as importantly is the putting myself in the open, giving myself a chance for others to reach out to me! Just look at this trip... It is so great to enjoy new experiences with the fun-loving people who populate this sometimes little, but sometimes huge, country of Thailand.
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