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As required by my rotation schedule, it was time for me to become a construction manager on Doi Inthanon, the highest mountain in Thailand. There I would be responsible for managing the construction of the 41 kilometer access road to the top of the mountain and an 18 building radar station. I had surveyed the top of this mountain in November and December 1967 while a senior in high school (see
Surveying the Top of Doi Inthanon). What are the odds that I would return seven years later to build the project!?
I wanted to take Linda with me, but the U.S. government considered Chiang Mai and Doi Inthanon to be an unaccompanied posting as it was too dangerous for families. My home was to be an 8” x 12” cubicle, constructed out of plywood walls and a corrugated tin roof, located on top of Doi Inthanon where I was to spend the duration of the project; perhaps two years (see
Construction on Doi Inthanon).
I took Linda anyway. My Dad accompanied me in a truck with our furniture, and Mom brought Linda by train to Chiang Mai. We rented a modern house near the Rincome Hotel and Chiang Mai University. Mom helped us move in, as
Dad had to return to Bangkok, but not before we rededicated the house right after the Buddhist priests invited the spirits in and planted the spirit house in the corner of our front yard. The spirit house eventually rotted away.
Our time in Chiang Mai was perhaps the best time of our lives, either before or after. The city is much smaller than Bangkok, and had much less traffic. It was very Thai, although it did have some foreign influence. There was a small tight knit foreign community of some 200 that did everything together, like church and the community theater. Most of the foreigners were missionaries or others with various aid organizations, attempting to get the hill tribes to grow something other than poppies for opium. We also had maybe 50 U.S. Air Force personnel stationed there to triangulate nuclear seismic activity anywhere in the world, and a U.S. Consulate with more than a few DEA agents to monitor opium and heroin production and trafficking. It was good to have some U.S. government presence because we could shop for American food in the commissary, and receive U.S. mail.
I worked on the mountain Tuesday through Saturday (see
Our home in Chiang Mai
When I visited CHiang Mai in 2007 our home had been replaced by two story concrete row houses.), so had Saturday evening through Tuesday morning with Linda in Chiang Mai. Some weeks Linda would join me on the mountain. She was with me when there was a hail storm, and the noise from the tin roof was like a machine gun going off.
We lived in Chiang Mai in a modern house on a one way street at the end of the runway. Living at the end of the runway had one advantage; Sunday mornings we would be woken by the engines of the USAF C-130 making its weekly mail run. We knew we had an hour shower, to get dressed and drive to the consulate to get our mail just as they finished sorting it. Late afternoons on Sunday we would attend the international church. We taught Sunday school. One of our students, David, eventually grew up and became a special forces officer. After retiring, he worked with the Karen in Burma. I recently saw on the news that he and his family were living in Iraq helping the people there. On Mondays we would tour around the area, shop at the mini PX and commissary, and in the evening see a movie at either
a theater in town or at the USAF annex at the Rincome Hotel. Usually there were a number of "bar girls" there. They didn't like Linda at all, giving her the evil eye as she probably reminded the GIs of their girlfriends at home.
While I was at the construction site, Linda would hang out with the Morse children; usually swimming at the Rincome Hotel. The Morse family had fled south China after the Red Army took over and settle in northern Burma. The scavenged down transport planes which had crashed during WWII when flying over the Hump while resupplying the Chinese army. Their "Swiss Family Robinson" like story "Exodus to a Hidden Valley" by Eugene Morse, was published by Readers Digest in 1974.
Linda also took one-on-one Thai lessons. Her teacher, Ladawan, was the wife of the manager of the Chiang Inn Hotel. After 4 hours of lessons, they would hang around together. Linda had our Grand Torino and was very proficient driving around town other than one scrape with a bus that almost forced her into the city moat. Another time she made a wrong turn and ended up in the middle of the Songkran (the
water festival in the middle of the hot season) parade. I think she drew more attention than Miss Songkran.
One day she noticed that her driver’s license had expired so they went to the police station. All the police wanted to know was where Linda’s parents were and why they let her drive as she looked quite young. The police told her that she needed to have her license renewed in Bangkok. So she drove away without them stopping her for an expired license…a smile from a beautiful girl will get you anywhere in Thailand!
Linda would take a siesta every afternoon. One afternoon she woke up to see an old grandmother with red betelnut stained teeth staring at her. We got Taffy, a cocker spaniel, to be our watch dog, to warn Linda when someone was entering our yard. Taffy was very effective in keeping curious grandmothers away. And she got along well with our cats, Zaney and Orphan Annie.
Another day while I was inspecting the construction, the Navy lieutenant who worked at the base of the mountain, and who commuted every day from Chiang Mai, brought news that Linda had contracted malaria. I went
back to Chiang Mai that evening and found her under piles of blankets even though it was hot. I nursed her back to health. Soon the U.S. Air Force installed a phone in our house so that Linda could contact me in case of emergencies such as this.
We took vacations to the beach at Hua Hin and visited my parents in Bangkok until they left for furlough. We went as far as Europe with them (see
Eurailpassing through Europe with Linda). We were also going to accompany missionaries to Burma, but their visas were denied so we ended up going by ourselves (see
Burma Christmas).
We initially had two servants, Atsupa, a Lisu tribesman was our gardener and Martha, his Lahu wife was our washer woman. They came to us on the recommendation of the Morse family, who also inspired the book "Fieldwork" by Mischa Berlinski.. I was reading this book and it suddenly dawned on me that I knew the story and people from real life. But Atsupa and Martha didn’t work out. First, when we were in Europe for the month of May 1974, they planted our entire yard with corn and began raising chickens. We got back and the
corn in our front yard was waist high. We were not pleased. They killed one of their chickens to feed us as a peace offering. However, they hadn’t gutted the chicken beforehand so we took the food to our room and fed our cats. The cats survived. Also in the evenings they would dance for tourists at the Hilltribes Cultural Center, which was run by the Thai Border Police. Soon they didn’t want to work there anymore, so the police started to harass them. This was another reason they decided to move back to their village in the hills.
Our next servant was Thai/Chinese and had worked for missionaries. Her only problem was that she would enter the room on her knees in a submissive gesture. Linda would respond by coming down to her level, and she would go lower. Pretty soon they were both flat out on the floor. Her mother sold vegetables at the market, so Linda would go with her to buy food. Linda usually sat down next to her mother and sold vegetables. She drew a lot of business. Although we had a cook, we rarely ate at home. Food at the night market was
great and cheap (25 cents for a bowl of noodles or fried rice). We also ate often at the Rincome Hotel. A fillet mignon steak dinner there along with all the trimmings with linen table cloth, silver place settings, and candle light was $2.50. We couldn't cook for ourselves that cheaply!
Our next door neighbors were French. He was a professor at the university. We noticed that they had a gardener who was a student there come one or two days per week. We asked the student if he had time to work for us the other days. That’s how we got a gardener to replace Atsupha. But our French neighbors never forgave us because we treated him so much better; giving him cold water and ice cream when the vendor drove by. The neighbors behind our house were major drug dealers who would buy the poppy paste from the hilltribes and produce heroin for export. They wanted to buy my Gran Torino when we left, but we took it with us.
I only had to live on the mountain until the rainy season washed out the road in June 1974. We hadn’t paved the road for the
Dining room
Linda was always finding snakes here. last few kilometers before the heavy rains hit, so there were 2 meter deep gullies in the middle of the road. From then on I commuted from Chiang Mai with the Navy lieutenant and ensign who worked in our office at kilometer 31. By the next dry season from November 1974 to May 1975 I was able to complete the road to the top and most of the buildings.
In February 1975 I completed my two year rotation as an engineer trainee, and was permanently hired as a GS-11. I was due home leave, but as this was the height of the construction season, my boss asked that I delay my leave until May. So I planned my trip and made my airlines reservations for May 1975. On 30 April 1975 Vietnam (and shortly thereafter Cambodia and Laos) fell to the communists. I was allowed to take home leave, but was told to look for a job since mine would end once the construction on Doi Inthanon was completed in December 1975.
Finally the Vietnam war was over...and I had to find a new job. Fortunately, when I returned to the States for home leave (see
The Fall of Vietnam, home leave, vacation in Great Britain, and our return to the States), I
had five job offers. I picked the one in Washington, DC so that I could be near Linda's family near Pittsburgh, and mine, who were on furlough, in Nyack, New York. This turned out to be the right choice.
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Drew Sawin
non-member comment
Typo
Cambodia fell on April 15, 1975 and Saigon fell on April 30, 1975 - not 1974. I realize this is only a typo, but it should be corrected. I left Phnom Penh on April 15, 1975 and Saigon on May 1, 1975. I appreciate your blogs. It brings back many memories. Drew