So it goes...

This is just a brief post as I suspect most who know me know I have am already stateside...

It's cold. That's my first impression. Americans are still as annoyingly American as they have always been. Trees are going through the last stages of autumn before they succumb to winter. My hair is as red here as it was in Thailand.

I have come back with substantially more personal understanding and yet still not a clear personal direction. This is my necessity to understand where I'm heading now.

Hopefully I will see all of you soon... Take care. E...

All good things...

Hello folks (yes it is rather optimistic of me to use the plural)... Sorry this will be a whirlwind post. I have a catch a bus back up to the monastery where I will spend my last few days here in Thailand. Then it's back to my comfy desk job in the states...

After the orphans. I returned to the city and found out that my broken finger was healing alright (yay). Then I split up with my father and did the touristy thing taking the boat ride down the Mekok river to Chiang Rai on a Songtail boat...

From Chiang Rai I caught a bus up to the border and crossed into Burma just for the day. I had a very interesting time wading through the black markets there. More people are apt to speak English there than in Thailand as it is a former British colony. I met a very friendly young Burmese guy and we chatted and had tea for a few hours and he told me about how bad the government was (something he would be imprisoned for saying if anyone heard) and showed me his 1969 Reader's which he read to practice his English. I had to give him some money to buy another book. Then I bought a couple of black market watches and it was time to leave.

Unfortunately I began to feel sicker and sicker and barely made it back through Thai customs before I was puking my guts out. So I spent the next couple of days recuoperating from whatever it was before returning to Chiang Mai.

Today, I'll head back up to the Monastery for a few days of meditation zoom back to the city and get on a plane for the states... I'm picking one up for Zoe so if anyone wants Thai child for a manservant now would be the time to let me know. Also, I can get you genuine , 100% authentic Rolexes for only $20... Here's some pictures:

Riding the boat to Chiang Rai...

Feeding the elephants... I feel like such a tourist...

Following the young monks across the bridge that seperates Burma from Thailand...

Oh yeah, there's been a lot of flooding all over the country. Here's a flooded out town...

Hello... I think I left off the last post saying that Jace and I were going to visit an orphanage for Burmese refugees. Well, we spent a very fun evening with playing with them and bringing them a special meal. I bought a small guitar for them and taught them how to play simple melodies and chords.

They are the cutest, sweetest, most well-behaved children I've ever met. It's so hard to believe that their worlds have basically been torn apart by political and economic forces they can't even begin to understand. Some of them have seen their family members killed. Others have been abandoned by their parents due to drugs or poverty. Thai society is pretty despicable in its treatment of Burmese in general and does not recognize them as legitimate. It's hard to say what would happen to them were it not for a committed Burmese man who runs the center and a few foreign volunteers.

After spending such a fun night with them Jace and I decided to stay the next night also and take them to the carnival... Anyway, my hand is kind of hurting today so here's some pictures:

Guitar Lessons... I told you to play C Major!

No road access, just a path through the rice patties...

A very cute baby...

They just look unhappy. I promise they're having a good time...

Playing at the Carnival...

A couple of the girls...

Tonsip, the Burmese guy who runs the center...

Well, it's been over a week since my last posting but there wasn't much to report. I spent several days in the city talking to doctors and wondering if I would have to have surgery or not. The guy who was the hand surgeon could seem to decide whether it was necessary or not. Finally, I found a doctor who told me that I should be ok, but I have to go back on Sunday and get checked out again. If I get the green light then I should be ok... We'll see.

So after I got the go-ahead from the doctor, we caught a bus to Mae Hong Son in the Northwest near Burmese border.

When we get off the bus, there's an American there waiting. "Do you know where the fuck you are?" he says. "You're in the middle of fucking nowhere. This is the motherfucking jewel of southeast Asia."

Turns out he is a very weird guy. He's lived here for twenty years and I get the sense he was in Vietnam and just never made it home. He's been telling all the outlandish tales about being in the CIA and gem-smuggling and I have to say, I kind of believe him. It's all too weird not to be true.

Mae Hong Son is probably the nicest, most beautiful little city I've been to in Thailand. We've stumbled upon the annual celebration of the end of the rainy season. Every night they close off the streets and there are sport competitions in the streets with basketball, volleyball, thai foot volleyball, as well as several new sports I have never seen before... And of course there is Thai kickboxing matches which are so captivating at the same time as it in incredibly violent and bloody.



Apparently a substantial portion of the town's prosperity comes from supplying the drug lords just across the border in Burma. Not more than 100 miles away is one of the main opium growing regions in the world. There are tens of thousands of refugees living in camps nearby who have been displaced either by the Burmese government or fighting between guerillas, government, and drug lords. For as peaceful as this seems this is a huge conduit through which heroin and illegal gems are smuggled.

We have met some people who run an orphanage for Burmese children and this evening we are putting on a special meal for them. I bought a small guitar to donate along with other things and we will hang out and play music and entertain them...

That's it for now... Take care... Word, E.