Easter / Holy Week 2023

My Easter/holy week began last Sunday in Maehongson at the Huanam Mae Sakud church where Ninae talked about trees in the Bible, taking us from Genesis to Revelation, pausing midway to mention Christmas trees and the connection to the Cross. The Christmas decorations often are still up this time of year at this church but through 'high tech craftsmanship', they were magically transformed into crosses as the kids waved Palm branches while they sang.

Most of the week was spent at the beach which can always be an odd juxtaposition during a week commemorating significant suffering and loss. Yesterday (Holy Saturday) I had two good meals with friends in Bangkok - which is often/usually the best thing to do when suffering loss - be with people and feed yourself. Both the company and the food were so good!

This morning I realized I couldn't face a raucous Easter service but I needed quiet contemplation so I was up early - but definitely not before those sleeping rough on the streets and the street involved - making my way to the first of my favorite three parks here in Bangkok. It was starting to get light as I crept out of my guest house and across the khlong bridge where a neighbor I know from former visits, who is usually intoxicated at most times of the day, was frying up mackerel for the 50-60 cats he feeds, thereby helping to increase the feline population that roam this particular corner outside the temple where he lives.

At each park I joined the early morning walkers and joggers, contemplating/looking for signs of life overcoming death. At Rommaninat Park (stop #3) the site of the former Khlong Prem Prison, this becomes painfully obvious. Initially built by King Chulalongkorn, it was converted and officially opened in 1999 as a beautiful park - but cells and guard towers remain in place. At Saranrom Park there is a beautiful monument that King Chulalongkorn dedicated to his Queen Consort and young daughter who both drowned in a boating accident. (And if you're looking at the map in the photos, I did end up adding a 4th stop to my holy trinity of parks - seriously - if you are ever in Bangkok, they are all worth visiting.)

And so from beginning the week contemplating trees, to being nourished by the waters of Huahin to celebrating Easter walking along the waterways of Bangkok and through the beautiful green oases that contrast with the grit of the city, I am grateful for reminders of life overcoming death, providing reminders that death is not the end and that love wins. Happy Easter!

Duncan

Baby it's hot (and really smoky) outside...

As March continued to march forward, all of a sudden I could smell smoke creeping into my air conditioned room for the first time one night. Now I just smell like I have been living in a camp fire the past two weeks. This is the season of burning fields and forest hillsides throughout much of Asia - especially here in Thailand - even though it is supposedly illegal. If you look at any sort of map showing what parts of the world are literally on fire at the moment or check in on the air quality index, you will see that Thailand is mostly shimmering red at the moment. A hazy, hot, horrendous, smoky month of March is usually to be expected - but on a recent Saturday I woke up, thinking I would go for a usual morning walk/run and I realized it was worse than usual. I checked online to see what the AQI was and was quite surprised to see 549! The week before I had seen a news report that Maehongson and Chiangmai had the worst air in the world and it was only in the 240 range - but 549!? Needless to say, the run didn't happen that morning or for several weeks as the numbers just continued to rise

One night I went to a meeting at church and all the hills around us were on fire. I knew the next day would be bad - and it was. Often the temple on top of the hill - even the hill isn't visible in the morning.

A week in Bangkok... but mainly a Huahin update

For the first time since arriving in Washington DC, work took me to Thailand as part of a team that spent a week  at the end of January with the USAID mission in Bangkok. It was a good week and I think having a local boy being part of the team was an added bonus to staff there. I was able to take team members to various places for introductions to food and culture.

Hotel room view

Which one is the US embassy? (hint: the one that looks like a fortress)

View of the US Ambassador's house along Wireless Road. To the left is the Dutch Embassy and next to it, out of view, is the US Embassy.

Part of the team, sampling the amazing Marian Plum (Mahprang)

Other team members enjoying last dinner together along the river with a view of Wat Arun

Wat Arun

A brief visit with Fern and Fink (friends mentioned previously in this blog!)

The bonus (in addition to being in Thailand for work) was that we had scheduled a week of vacation for the following week, long before I knew I would even be in Thailand. We decided that Andrea would fly out so we could spend a week at the beach in Huahin at Veranda Lodge, our favorite little hotel there that I have been wanting to return to for almost ten years. Full hotel review can be found here. 

Back to Thailand June 6-29

Confession time…I would go back to Malaysia and Cambodia in a heartbeat but it was so great to arrive back in Thailand! We flew from Phnom Penh to Bangkok and then straight up to Chiang Mai for a couple nights before flying out to Maehongson again. (For earlier trip to Maehongson, click here)




(View of Pa Tyng, one of the villages where I grew up.)






We spent four nights in Pa Tyng and four nights in Napajat where I had stayed back in April. Many highlights – catching up with old friends, visiting a couple churches where my parents worked (photo below), sort of plowing a ricefield (see future video post), enjoying the freedom being on the back of a motorcycle riding through the fields and forests, getting my first haircut in nine months! – and not dying from being hit by lighting or being bit by a massive cobra! Oh you want more information on the last story?? There’s a hill/cliff on the other side of the river that runs by Pa Tyng. I had climbed up there before but wanted to return to get some digital pictures. It didn’t take long to reach the top but there was a huge storm coming along with licks of lightning and thunder reverberating through the hills. I thought I should probably hurry down and not be on the highest point around. So I’m hurrying and just before I reach the main path at the bottom I happen to see a very large six foot snake crossing the trail two feet in front of me. I instantly stopped and debated pulling out the camera and taking a picture or backing up – I chose the latter, but clearly it wasn’t my time to go yet! (Photo to left - Andrea and Grandfather Nan in Napajat)

We flew back to Chiangmai for another two nights where we were able to catch up with long time OMFers and former colleagues of my parents – Andrew Goodman and Hans and Beatrice Bar – so great to see them again before flying down to Bangkok and journeying south by bus for three hours to Huahin for three wonderful days at Veranda Lodge, one of our most favorite beach getaways. It was great to have these three days there as we came to the end of our trip.

This time we met the owner of the hotel who invited us to eat with her and her family one evening which was pretty cool in and of itself. As we were finishing eating in came an older gentleman who turned out to be a prince - the grandson of King Chulalungkorn (so he was the great grandson of the King in The King and I!) Totally random, kind of crazy and a fun night. He didn't realize how tall Andrea was until she stood up as we were leaving. He of course wanted a picture right away. Evidently the hotel owner decided she liked us as she offered to take us back to Bangkok in her car as she was going up there the same day we were leaving.

(Photo - With Hans and Beatrice Bar)

Friday, June 26 we were supposed to stay with Eak, my security guard friend from Union Tower. We had made plans that we would meet him at work at 6pm when he was finished with work and drive home with him. He had told us we were going to go camping in his yard. We weren't quite sure what this all meant but we were looking forward to it. Unfortunately, while we were still at the beach, he called from the hospital to tell us he had had another seizure. Eak has some form of epilepsy that only causes seizures when he is sleeping. He said he wasn't going to be released from the hospital until Friday. We decided that it wasn't the best idea to have us go stay with him the day he was released from hospital and that we would go visit him the following day instead. Who wants to be setting up a tent after being in hospital for three days?

Unfortunately, Andrea became very sick that Friday night and knew she wasn't going anywhere until she got better. I went and spent the day with Eak and some of his family.

By Saturday night/Sunday morning it was clear Andrea wasn't improving even though she had started taking antibiotics right away. Sunday night she developed a fever which made us more nervous, knowing that all the asian airports are equipped with thermal detectors to check out arriving passengers. (They don't mess around with H1N1 flu!) So we sent out an email to those who had been praying for us these past months. Thankfully and pretty miraculously (but should we really have been surprised given how we feel God has looked after us over and over again this trip) by the time we had to leave for the airport for our flight to Singapore at 2pm on Monday, June 29 Andrea had no fever and didn't have to run to the bathroom every hour! Upon arrival in Singapore we walked past the thermal detectors and were very grateful not to get pulled over. If you were praying...THANK YOU!

Duncan