Impressions Part 1

I shall return to Chiang Mai.

I’m starting this blog around 11:45 pm in Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport, arguably the least comfortable and least inviting airport in the world. We are wrapping up our two and a half week trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand, desperately trying to reset our internal clocks back 14 hours by staying up far beyond the point of exhaustion. Well, I’m staying up as late as I can. Mandi is currently trying to sleep on the cold and hard airport floor, which seems to be inviting the stares of every Thai person walking by. I don’t know if we’re being culturally insensitive or just some sort of farang freak show on display for everyone to gawk at. Either way, I’m just tired enough to be less understanding and more irritable about the one-sided staring contest. Great time to write and reflect on our trip, no?

Mandi and I, on our plane ride from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, were talking a bit about our return to the states, and the slight dread of the inevitable repeated question, “How was your trip?” Every major trip involves about a week of that same question, slowly driving you mad, or at least motivating you less and less to give trip details, and motivating you more and more to hone in on that elusive under-one-minute synopsis. So I’m going to provide my take on our trip here in digital form so that we have a place to refer people to if they desire further information.

The phrase “I shall return” seems to encapsulate my feelings about this trip. I began the trip with the goal of impartiality, to observe and weigh my options without getting too caught up in the experience. That mode of operation didn’t last long. Once we really got into the trip, experiencing life in Chiang Mai, meeting loads of Pioneers personnel, I was hooked and sold very quickly. Coming in, I really didn’t know what, or rather who, to expect. I had “met” a handful of the people working in Chiang Mai via email or Skype, but had no concrete reference as to who these people were and what they were really like. I can get along with a wide spectrum of personalities, but I truly enjoy a much narrower slice of that same spectrum. It’s like my personality can coexist with a full rainbow of colors, but really does well with emerald green, or chartreuse, or mauve. Much to my surprise, I found that many of the people working in the SE Asia area are remarkably close to that emerald green, chartreuse, or mauve I was really hoping for, a huge blessing and relief, to be sure.

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