Goodbye to Chiang Mai--for now

I am leaving Chiang Mai, “the Rose of the North,” after a stay of four months and two weeks—the fifth month being my journey around the country from mid-January to mid-February. I am sad to leave. Oh, I know, the air is frightfully polluted, the country is in extreme difficulties, there is huge disparity in the wealth of the populace, and trouble abounds. I will always be a “farang,” a white foreigner. And Thai is a difficult language for all of us who try to learn.

BUT IT IS SUCH A PLEASANT PLACE TO LIVE! I may be a farang with terrible Thai, but when I said goodbye to my Thai friends this week, they were genuinely sad, and so was I. In fact, when I said goodbye to everyone, they were ALL sad, and so was I. I shall come back in the “cold season,” next November, December and January. I shall study in Chiang Mai, spend the Loy Grathon Festival in Sukhothai, and go exploring around the country again. And maybe I’ll arrive earlier and stay later.

There is just something about this country.... It reaches a part of me that needs the warmth—and yes, the detachment too. It gives me a fabulous puzzle of a language of the heart, of “jai, ใจ,” with a script to match: beautiful, intricate, full of hidden meanings, accessible until it suddenly isn’t. And when I am left stranded by meaning and understanding, here comes a Thai person who says, “But you WILL be back in November, won’t you? Won’t you?”

I will.

Here are some end-of-journey photos:Okumaya devam et