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Published: October 29th 2007
Fidgeting about my cramped seat, unable to reach a position of comfort, I question myself on why it is I continue to go through this time and time again. The night bus is a familiar setting to many a traveler and a journey that most dread, but continually take despite. One can always count on the frigid air from the overhead vents, the foul stench seeping out of the bathroom, vibrations from the windows that run from the side of your head down through your spine, and of course, the sudden pot hole that nearly throws you from your seat. Some are able to squeeze in some decent shut eye, but for an oversized, light sleeper like myself, it’s very unlikely. With my eyes too heavy to read, my only comforts come from my soundtracks of music and the views of the landscape lit by the moon. As the music plays in my head and I stare into the night, my thoughts drift to the past and on into the future. I think of all of you back home and what it will be like to see you again. It feels like I talk to some of you more when I'm
away then I do when I'm stateside. That's something I hope to change when I return; if I survive through this deathly staph infection. I'm kidding...I went to see a doctor and he sent me on to the hospital (best one in Thailand). The skin specialist there told me that it definitely looked like a staph infection, but that she wanted to do a culture test just incase. She then put me on some stronger meds, which have done wonders and I await the results for the test (3-7 days). So, you can all stop worrying so much; I’ll be fine. And to those of you who keep telling me I need to come home to get treatment…have you forgotten who you’re dealing with…Dr. Curl can handle his own, thank you very much. Plus, I have carcass extraction insurance, so no one has to worry about never seeing me again…they’ll simply ship me back in a box…no strings or costs attached, so worry not; I’ll make it home one way or the other.
So, I made it to the city of Chiang Mai (second largest in the country) in the northwestern region of Thailand and I only have a
few days to kick around. I just found out that my flight to Nepal was cancelled (only because I called to check the status - no heads up on their part) because the airline decided to start doing flights on Fridays only and mine was on a Wednesday. So, I had to fight tooth and nail to get on another flight this month and I just so happened to find an open seat on a fight leaving two weeks earlier than planned. That means I have to zip through northern Thailand (bummer) and get my butt into Laos, because I need to be back in Bangkok by the 6th of November to confirm, yet again, that my new flight is not cancelled (never fly Royal Nepal airlines - their super shady!).
Despite the rush, I was still able to visit some famous temples and book a nice little day’s excursion into the jungle to hike, ride elephants, visit local villages and take a bamboo raft down the river. It was a great time, even though it was a bit touristy. My group consisted of a Dutch couple, a French couple and two older German ladies. There were a lot
of different languages getting tossed around and English wasn’t one of the more frequent ones. This is a normal occurrence, and I simply advert my attention else where so I don’t go completely bonkers trying to figure out what everyone is talking about. Our hikes and village visits were nice, but we moved at the pace of a drunken turtle (4 rest stops in one mile - no joke). This definitely wasn’t going to prepare me for my base camp hike to Mount Everest. As for the elephant ride and the bamboo rafting, I’d heard that it was a bit boring just sitting there doing nothing, but that wasn’t the case for me. Being the odd man out, the guide aloud me to ride on the elephant’s neck instead of sitting in a basket (like everyone else) and I also got to help stand and steer the giant bamboo rafts down the river. So, my experience was much different than the others and really turned out to be memorable.
At the elephant ranch (or whatever you call it), we all loaded up on our assigned elephants (all with a local guide/driver except for mine) and headed out into the
jungle for a little over an hour. My elephant (that I shared with the French couple) was tied to the elephant in front of ours to keep him from wondering off. I sat straddling my legs around his neck and was able to lay my body down over his head from time to time. I bought two big bundles of bananas to feed him and he surely did love it. Every few seconds my big buddy would bring his trunk back and blow his breath in my face, begging for a treat. I gave him one after another and many times played tug-a-war with his trunk. He was very playful, but also quite spoiled. He nearly ran me out of bananas within the first half hour. I had to start pushing his trunk away so he’d focus on following the pack. He would occasionally flap his ears back against my legs to let me know that he’d waited long enough for his snack, so I would lean down over his forehead and give him one and then a little rub between his eyes or behind his ears to make him happy. I have to say that I sure love my
elephant (Mom, Dad, I want one!). At the end of the tour, I dismounted and took the last little bunch of bananas to divide between the group, which didn’t work to well. Instead of taking the single treat from my right hand, the elephants went after the bunch in my left (that was in a plastic bag). It was so funny. They totally molested me with their trunks trying to grab the big bundle of food and literally cornered me with my back to a stream and ripped the bag of bananas from my arms. I fought back a little - yanking the bananas from their curled up trunks, but in the end they won. They are such cool animals - I just wanted to hug them.
The raft ride was also really neat. The boats consisted of 8 long bamboo tree trunks (about 20 feet in length) all tied together and a guide in the front with a bamboo shoot and one on the rear (I got to be the man in the back). It was so different than the rafting we’re all used to in the states. Two to four people sat in the center of the
raft and the guides stood on either end to control the movement with the bamboo poles. I’d push off of the bottom of the river or off the trees and rocks on the bank for control. We mostly just cruised along, but did get to go through some rapids here and there. At one point there was a good sized rapid that dropped off a ways, so, the guide had the passengers all get off and walk around by land; well, except for me. I asked if I could accompany him over the rapids and he said it was fine. So, we approached the white waters, squatted down (holding our poles side to side) for balance, and dropped over the small waterfall (30 feet - kidding…maybe three). Well, I didn’t fall in and lived to tell the tale (I couldn’t bring my camera though- so no pics). So, that was our day. I wish I had more time in Chiang Mai to go on more of the tours. There’s so much you can do here - bungee jumping, 2 day/3day backcountry camping, elephant tours, all sorts of hikes, massages, Thai fighting and even a cooking course to learn all the
local cuisines (Zac, you’d like that). But, maybe I’ll return one day. For now, reaching the mighty Mount Everest is my goal, so I move on.
During my travels I’ve realized that one of the most important parts is sharing my faith with those whose paths I cross. I’m not one to simply walk up to someone and start talking about Jesus and how He can change their life (I’m not that brave or confident). I usually just wiggle the subject in one way or another and if I can’t get it in I don’t force it. The last thing I want to do is throw my beliefs in someone’s face. I’ll discuss it in more depth if they wish and if not, I leave it alone. During my time in Southeast Asia, I have shared my beliefs with more people than normal. As I’ve said before, it is usually a subject avoided in the backpacker world, but being surrounded by the religious cultures of Asia has made it all the easier to share mine. I really haven’t had to try that hard to bring the topic up; it seems to be finding me. Now, I’m not going to
go into detail about each and every discussion I’ve had, but there is one in particular I would like to share.
I’ve found that most of the backpackers I’ve recently spoken with are Agnostic, meaning they believe in a higher power but don’t believe in any particular God or gods. They don’t agree with religion and want nothing to do with it. They just want to live their lives and not be bothered with having to figure out who made what and why. I talked to Danny (my Canadian friend) on several occasions and also with a guy named Angel (64 yr. old Art dealer from Spain) that I met on a bus. I tried so hard to pull from my brain all of the stuff I know in my heart, but I just doesn’t flow like I want it to (my memory is horrible). I’m getting better, but I still forget to touch on certain points when I’m person to person. Back in Bangkok, I read back over some of the points that C.S. Lewis touches on in “Mere Christianity,” and continued to think on them. Then in Chiang Mai, I finally got to use some of those
points to make a persuasive case to a fellow traveler.
While visiting the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep (one of northern Thailand’s most sacred temples), I ran into an Aussie around about my age named Matthew. We chatted a bit about our travels and then started discussing the size of the temple and commenting on the number of golden idols that were around. We discussed the Buddhist religion a little and then Matthew made a comment that really got our conversation going. “I don’t believe in all this religious stuff, but Buddhism seems alright. The people are peaceful and don’t bother or pressure others to join their religion unlike like, say…the Christians do.” I couldn’t help but laugh a bit (because I’d been hearing it so much lately) and then he stopped in his tracks and asked, “I’m sorry, you’re not a Christian are you?” I replied, “Yes I am, but don’t worry I’ve gotten that a lot lately.” He was a little embarrassed and questioned, “Well, you’re not like one of those strong believing evangelical types that go around trying to change everyone, right?” I couldn’t help but laugh some more and exclaimed, “Well, I used to not
be a very strong Christian at all. I did believe, but I definitely didn’t live the way I should have. As I grew older, I had my eyes opened and now I’m a strong believer, but I’m not one to through it in your face, so don’t worry.” Then Matthew proceeded to apologize some more for what he’d said, and I told him that I was sorry that he felt that Christians were pushy and judgmental. I promised him that not everyone was like that and that that is totally the opposite of what Christianity strives to do; sharing what we believe - yes…forcing it down people’s throats and judging them if they think different…far from it. We talked about the different religions and how most derived from either Judaism, Islam, Christianity, or Hinduism, and then discussed some of their differences. I explained how all the other religions are based on doing works to reach Heaven, Nirvana or Never Never Land (which explained the various rituals we were watching the Buddhist do right before us), but Christianity is based on faith alone to be saved. Then as the conversation progressed, I realized that Matthew didn’t even know that Christians believed
Jesus and God to be one of the same. This then lead into a discussion of the Trinity, which always gets some odd looks. Then, Matthew claimed that he believes that there was such a man as Jesus (b/c history has proven that), but that this so called Messiah was simply a sinless guy who lived a very influential life. He went on to say that Jesus did make a good moral impact on humanity, but that doesn’t mean he was God. A smile came across my face, because I had also heard this view many times before. “The fact is,” I explained, “most Jews, Muslims and other religions, agree that there was a man named Jesus who was an extrodinary person and lived a sinless life. And, many believe that he was a sinless prophet, who was a great moral teacher during his time, but as for me, I have a problem with that belief. This man we all know as Jesus actually claimed that he was God. He didn’t say he was a prophet or a preacher, but stood there and actually said that he was God, the creator of the heavens and the earth and everything in
between. Now, either this guy Jesus is truly God or he was someone completely off of his rocker or even worse. So, if you don’t believe that he is God, you can’t claim that he was a great moral teacher, a prophet, or even a perfect man, because this guy claimed that he was God, the one and only. But before you go and discard Jesus as a liar and a crazy man, you need to look into his life for yourself, because honestly, what did Jesus ever gain by claiming to be God? All he got was persecution, torture and death, and he never once changed his mind about his claim." Well, that is roughly how I put it (probably not that smoothly) and it left Matthew really thinking. I tried to throw a couple of Bible verses in there to support my claims, but of course my memory is not like that of an elephant (not even close). This was one of the first times I’ve actually had someone say that they’d have a look at it because they wanted to get a better understanding. And that’s all I wanted to hear and it felt good. Matthew and
I ended up leaving the temple and grabbing some lunch together to continue our conversation. We even threw in a little politics to make sure we hit all of the forbidden topics. Before leaving, Matthew did have one final question about my beliefs. He asked, “In Christianity, don’t you believe that you are the only ones going to heaven and that the rest of us are going to hell - like me?” I looked at him and replied, “The only person that truly knows a man’s or woman’s heart is God. And He is the only one who knows where a person is going, so don’t let any misguided people tell you other wise and deter you from learning more about Jesus.” Then I turned to Matthew and landed a sudden smack to his forehead with my palm and cried, “Demons be gone!” I then left him there lying on the floor in shock...ha!..ha!…now you know I couldn’t go that long with out throwing a little humor in. Seriously though, he did ask that question. As for going into so much detail; well, I really just wanted to share that story, because it was a meaningful conversation between two complete
strangers that I never want to forget (remember, I’m not an elephant).
It was a short visit to Chiang Mai, but it left some good memories. I head to the border of Laos tomorrow and plan on catching a boat down the Mekong River to the city of Luang Prabang. It will take two to three days to get there and will let me experience life on the river in Southeast Asia. Hopefully it won’t be as brutal as my boat ride down the Amazon, but I’ll let know. That is all for now. Take care and Laa Kawn my friends!
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David Ayliffe
non-member comment
"Mere Christianity " Does Come In Handy
Isn't it amazing how often people rely on the position, probably without even thinking about it, that C.S. Lewis so concisely and logically rejects in "Mere Christianity." That book really is an outstanding source for presenting a respectful, unoffensive but logical and presuasive defense of the Christian faith. In addition to seeing and doing all kinds of cool stuff, it looks like you and the Holy Spirit are achieving the objectives of 1 Peter 3:15-16. Keep the stories and pictures coming; my wife and I are really enjoying them.