North Korean Literature from Words Without Borders

Juche Tower in Pyongyang

Something pushed me to set aside my work for a minute and Google "Arduous March" this afternoon. I wanted to find out if "March" referred to the month or the movement. The first search result was Wikipedia's article on the North Korean famine of 1994-1998. As it turns out, that march lasted much longer than a month.

The second result was an excerpt from an autobiography written by one Ji Hyun-ah that described her family's experiences with "the shadow of hardship" and the lengths to which they had to go to feed themselves as hundreds of thousands of North Koreans starved to death.

The excerpt was from a literary magazine called Words Without Borders, and I had a look around its website. Before I knew it, my entire afternoon had been sucked into reading piece after piece of literature in translation from around the world. I couldn't believe that I hadn't known about Words Without Borders before now.

In particular, I wanted to read more works by North Korean defectors (keep in mind that the only literature to come out of North Korea is propaganda). To my surprise, an entire issue last year was devoted to this very group. In May 2013, seven defectors' prose and poetry were published, and I quickly read them all. Here are some standouts:

A Blackened Land by Kim Yeon-seul tells a story of anger heartbreak with hard drug use as its culprit and the despotic Kim regime as its architect. It is accusatory and starkly bitter, almost enough to taste. Last fall I criticized the media for its sensationalist coverage of North Korea's rampant drug use; reading this firsthand account has surely altered the lens through which I look at the issue. Also of note: Kim Yeon-seul is from Chongjin, the hometown of the six defectors profiled in Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy, which I am reading currently.

The Poet Who Asked for Forgiveness analyzes the poetry of Kim Chul, following its evolution as the government punished his failure to conform his art to party ideology with separation from his family and forced labor. The strict regulations over the substance of art reminds me of how Shostakovich composed magnificent symphonies during World War II but was creatively controlled by Stalin the whole time. But the communist prohibition of artistic freedom isn't just a smudge in the history of culture; it's still happening in North Korea, where every song on the radio and every movie in theaters grinds the gears of the juggernaut propaganda machine.

Another poem, "Pillow" by Jang Jin-sun, narrates a harrowing and heartbreaking scene in a Pyongyang marketplace. It reads very quickly, but it's easy to see the difference in theme in style -- even in translation -- between the work of a North Korean state poet and that of a North Korean state poet who has defected to South Korea, whose memories of life there are already ten years in the past.

I Want to Call Her Mother Again is tragic. It also offers a peek inside the hanawon where defectors go to adjust to life in South Korea. If you read only one thing to try to understand the experiences of North Korean refugees, this should be it.

Although North Korea was spotlit last year, literature from elsewhere on the peninsula has popped up more recently. The most recent "graphic lit" issue of Words Without Borders includes I Am a Communist, a translated excerpt from a graphic novel detailing a man's difficult life choices in the tumultuous years before the border between the Communist North and the not-so-Democratic South was sealed.

A few years earlier, there was a feature on a translated North Korean comic book (meaning that it was geared toward kids) titled "The Secret of Frequency A". In it, doe-eyed North Korean child geniuses help unravel a conspiracy theory that involves evil American and Japanese scientists killing all the animals in Africa with fatal acoustic signals.

And the final two pieces that I read which stayed with me powerfully were The Chef's Nail, a work of short fiction about a woman from Seoul who rode line 2 of the subway in circles all day -- powerful and mindbending -- and a short comic about mother tongues in Taiwan called Tongue-tied which resonated with me personally.

I'm thrilled to have stumbled upon something new, interesting, and of such high quality, but I'm vacillating over whether or not to subscribe to the magazine, because my Reader is already swamped with hundreds of articles, blog posts, and random junk that I'll never get around to... Nevertheless, I exhort you to check out Words Without Borders, especially if you're into literature in translation or literature of marginalized peoples, and especially especially check out the North Korea issue if you want a large and immediate dose of... tsuris? Litost? Pathos? Conviction.

개학 - School's beginning!

Winter break is finally over. It's been a long two months, and I'm restless to get back to teaching! I wouldn't say I'm ready for 개학 (gaehak, the start of classes), though, since I've left a lot of my curriculum planning undone. Yeah, I really tried to make the most of my vacation this year, and that meant that I traveled and hung out with friends a ton but left all my work for the last minute. But as a last hurrah before I buckle down and hit the road running tomorrow morning, let us recap!

December 2013: I stayed at school during the week of Christmas, even though I'm contractually allowed to take off earlier, because I wanted to watch my students perform at their school festival. I baked a ton and then went to Seoul to visit friends, which always means eating a ton of food. Year-end festivities were put on hold so that I could finish my grad school apps.

January 2014: I reconnected with my homestay family, began a linguistics research project that took me to Jeju Island, then passed through Busan on my way to Japan for a five-day trip around Kyushu with my friend Erik! I took the hydrofoil ferry from Busan to Fukuoka, visited the Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki, saw a volcano, dipped in a natural hot spring, and ate a lot of amazing food. After ten days at home, I was off again to backpack through Thailand and Laos for two weeks.

February 2014: After visiting the protest sites in Bangkok and riding elephants in Chiang Mai, I crossed the northern border of Thailand into Laos and cruised down the Mekong while enjoying the amazing views of a virtually untouched landscape. I spent one night in a rural Lao village, then traipsed around Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng, exploring waterfalls and caves. In two weeks, I made a dozen new friends and decided that backpacking is the best way to travel when you're young. Lastly, I came back full circle to Bangkok via Vientiane and flew back to Korea, just in time for my school's second graduation ceremony. One week of writing for Changwonderful, biking with Changwon Bike Party, and blogging as much as I could passed by too quickly, and then I found myself on a plane bound for Pyongyang. North Korea was weird and unforgettable, and you'll hear all about it soon.

I've been back in South Korea for a little over a week. I got a new haircut, went to a pizza party with friends in Seoul, baked banana bread and Nutella muffins, tried out a ton of cafes and restaurants in Changwon, visited Tongyeong on a whim, volunteered with North Korean defectors, and went to my first ever K-pop concert: K.Will in Busan!

Okay, it's too late. I can't write anymore. Here are photos of my winter break!

Graduation day; new haircut; Tongyeong mural village; Cafe Olympic in Nagasaki; brunch in Changwon; hanging out in Seoul; hanging out in Bangkok; Changwon Bike Party; hanging out in Pyongyang; elephant ride in Chiang Mai; canoe ride in Laos; K.Will concert; chilling in Vang Vieng; chilling in Luang Prabang; and 친구들~

Some of the things I've made and/or eaten: Nutella banana walnut muffins, honey toast at Ogada, Japanese hambagu steak in Changwon, homemade pancakes, citron tea at Cafe Hau, orange French toast at Flying Pan Blue, Sulbing, more Sulbing, raw horsemeat (basashi) in Nagasaki, and peanut butter jalapeno burger at Sharky's in Busan!

Happy March! I saw cherry blossoms in bloom today in Tongyeong. Spring is coming! And goodnight.

Chiang Rai and the White Temple

Jesse and me at the White Temple. It looks pretty, but wait until you get closer...

If you ever find yourself in northern Thailand, visit the White Temple. Once you see it, you will have a hard time forgetting the demon heads, the albino koi, and the glittering towers that have made Wat Rong Khun so famous.

Day 6 (Jan. 29): The White Temple (Wat Rong Khun)

Jesse and I teamed up for a few days in order to get from Thailand to Laos. On our first day together, we found ourselves lost in Chiang Rai, and it was hot. We'd been given incorrect directions to our hostel from the bus terminal, so we popped into a nearby cafe for Thai milk tea (it's orange and delicious!) and some complimentary Internet. I also got a souvenir cup from the cafe! Finally, we found FUN-D.

Chiang Rai hostel rec: FUN-D hostel is hands-down the best hostel I've been to in Southeast Asia. It is large, spacious, and clean. The staff are enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and the entire space is geared toward travelers in transit, since most of their clientele are simply passing through this small town on their way to Laos or Myanmar. It was a shame I only stayed there one night (as I, too, was in transit), because their facilities were top-notch, including a computer room, a restaurant and bar, and coin laundry! (I should have done my laundry...)

The helpful folks at our hostel checked us in promptly, and when we mentioned that we wanted to visit the White Temple, they sprang to action and flagged down a passing songthaew (like a big tuk-tuk, or a kind of pickup-truck taxi) and arranged a trip for us: 400THB for a round-trip ride to the temple, which is on the outskirts of town. That came out to about six bucks per person, which is more expensive than your usual local taxi, but since it was already getting late in the afternoon and we had to get there before it closed, we took the deal.

Wat Rong Khun, the White Temple in Chiang Rai.

Demon head on a tree!

No regrets whatsoever. Sooner than I expected, we'd arrived at the temple grounds, and my jaw dropped. It was gorgeous: a pure white building inlaid with glass that made it almost sparkle in the sun. A moat with fountains and statues of dragons added to the initial mystical impression. Then, I took a closer look and was stupefied: sculptures of monstrous heads hung from trees. Demonic guards threatened visitors with glittering white swords. Hands rose from a hellish pit before I crossed a bridge that led to the sanctuary. What the heck is this place, I thought.

Once inside the sanctuary, I saw a Buddha statue, tranquil as always, but on the wall opposite his placid smile, scenes of apocalypse had been painted on the wall: a mural depicting a demon swallowing a world on fire, with warlike images such as nuclear missiles and an unmistakable (and horrifying) depiction of the September 11th attacks. All throughout, a seemingly arbitrary selection of pop culture icons like Spiderman, Neo, the minions from Despicable Me, creatures from Avatar, Lara Croft, Michael Jackson, and even Doraemon, flew around the doomsday scene, some caught in the tentacles of destruction and others simply posing as the world ended. On the two adjacent walls, families of every race and ethnicity were depicted riding magic carpets toward Buddha and his version of heaven.

It was bizarre.

Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside the sanctuary. So, here are more from the grounds around the temple complex. You should also definitely search online for more images; the list of weird and wonderful things to see is endless.

A crystal ball?

The truly creepy and unforgettable hands from hell.

More demon heads... wait, isn't that Hellboy? And Batman? And Freddy Krueger?

Wishes written on charms; tens of thousands of these were hung up on poles and resembled giant tin Christmas trees.

White reigns surpreme at this temple.

I walked through the temple without a clue as to what it was all about, but I knew there had to be some amazing story behind it. Some quick research tells me it was designed in 1997 (and will not be completed for at least another decade) and is meant to evoke Buddhist themes of life, death, and escape from evil in a way that is suited for contemporary society.

The White Temple will leave you in awe, I guarantee it. There's nothing quite like it in the entire country, I'm sure. I walked through the entire complex twice (entrance is free!) just before the site closed at 6pm, and I took as many photos as I could.

After returning to the city, we walked around and found nothing much of interest to do. There was a pretty clocktower, after taking a photo of which Jesse remarked, "Well, we've seen Chiang Rai. Now what?"

At night, we meandered around the night bazaar for a bit, munching on some snacks but mostly staring wide-eyed at others. Some of the fare at the bazaar included fried crickets, cockroaches, and mealworms! I passed on those, but I did eat green curry, a black sticky rice patty with peanut powder, fried eggrolls, and an ice cream sundae served in a fresh coconut! Also, we kept running into the same travelers we'd seen before. The backpacking route Jesse and I had just begun is a very well-traveled one; if you follow it, you're likely to end up moving at the same pace as many other people. Thus, this was to become a theme of the next few days: "Oh, I've seen you around, haven't I? So where are you headed next?"

For me, the answer is: Laos!

This nice lady grilled a black sticky rice patty and then rolled some peanut powder up into it and gave it to me wrapped in a banana leaf and it was delicious and the best part is that she smiled for this photo!

Hm... okay, not hungry.

Man in the 'Murica bandana scrapes a coconut shell clean for some ice cream!

Coconut ice cream sundae for 75 cents! What a treat!

Volunteering with North Korean Defector Children

This photo is courtesy of the Facebook page of the Korean Red Cross Gyeongnam (대한적십자사 경남지사). It was uploaded today with a caption I've roughly translated as, "Today was the Mentor-Mentee Matching and Opening Ceremony for the KRC Gyeongnam's mentoring program with college students and defector children. After the matching, everyone went to the first floor baking kitchen to make muffins and have some great bonding time. We have a ton of enjoyable and edifying activities planned for the future. We are all rooting for you!"

As some of my readers may be aware, I recently traveled to North Korea (DPRK) on a tour with the Pyongyang Project. I have a lot to say about that trip, but because I'm still processing some thoughts (and because I haven't finished recapping Southeast Asia), I'll hold off on blogging about it for now.

However, I am remaining connected in a small sense to my experiences there by beginning a new volunteer activity this semester. Fulbright Korea sponsors many educational and cultural initiatives far beyond mere teaching, and one of its most successful programs has been the English tutoring program for North Korean defectors.

North Korean defectors are DPRK citizens who illegally leave the country to attempt to live and acquire citizenship somewhere else. If defectors successfully make it to South Korea (ROK) -- which is difficult and dangerous -- they can acquire South Korean citizenship and adjust to life here. But things don't get easier for North Koreans in the south. In addition to culture shock and the stress of daily life here, many find themselves at an economic disadvantage fueled in part by linguistic disparity.

North Koreans can face prejudice because they speak Korean a bit differently, but even worse, many defectors have had little to no English education, which bars them from applying to better-paying jobs and stymies economic mobility. As for children, many who have spent more of their lives living in China than in either of the Koreas, they must hit the ground running with their education and play catch-up for years before they can match their peers in linguistic ability.

One of the children I met today is a typical case: MS is fifteen years old but looks much younger than his age. He wasn't exactly shy, but he wasn't speaking much, either; the reason, I soon realized, was that he is more comfortable speaking Mandarin than Korean. He told me that he arrived in South Korea one year ago; prior to that, he spent eight years in China. As we chatted in Mandarin, South Korean volunteers looked on in interest, unable to understand. MS used Korean with his official mentors and the other children but Chinese with his younger sister and me. I taught him a handful of English words, but when I'd try to switch from speaking in Mandarin to English, he'd stop and say, "영어 어려워요." English is hard.

When MS enters high school in a year or two, he will be required to take intensive English grammar courses. Right now, he cannot even introduce himself. It is for people like MS that Fulbright organized its English teachers all across South Korea and began the English tutoring program. At the Hana Centers (where defectors go for resettlement and living assistance) in cities including Seoul, Daegu, Gwangju, Jeonju, Jeju, Busan, and Daejeon, Fulbright teachers conduct classes and/or one-on-one tutoring for defectors who want to improve their English. Changwon's Hana Center, which is operated by the Korean Red Cross, made plans to begin its English tutoring program this semester -- via me.

So that's how I found myself at the Gyeongnam Red Cross building, making chocolates and baking muffins with twenty adorable and high-energy kids and twice as many local college students, who were the defector childrens' official mentors for the year. The classes will begin in a week or two, but for today, I was just there to meet my future students and have some fun. And I did just that! I've never made chocolates before, and to do so with a bunch of kids with wild imaginations and a rather typical lack of self-control was the best way to learn how, I reckon.

Handcrafted chocolates courtesy the kids of the Gyeongnam Hana Center!

Some of the children were very reticent, but others opened up very easily. One bold girl who told me her name was Sandy and tried out her entire English vocabulary on my throughout the day was utterly incredulous when I told her that I was American. (Even some of the college students mistook me for another mentor who happened not to have a mentee.) But Sandy insisted that I was Korean and was just pretending not to speak Korean well because I was the English teacher. I don't know if I managed to convince her in the end, but the playful misunderstanding didn't keep us from having a great time when we played tag outside or packaged the colorful chocolates and freshly-baked muffins into bags to take home.

I had such a wonderful day today, and I can't wait to see Sandy, MS, and some of the other kids soon in my classroom. I'm nervous about teaching low-level students for the first time, but I'm committed to this and I know it'll all work out.

Chiang Mai / Chiang Rai, Thailand to Luang Prabang, Laos via Slow Boat

This is for reference for fellow travelers who want to take the two-day slow boat down the Mekong from the Thailand-Laos border crossing. As of 2014, the northern border crossing happens on the Fourth Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge (no more ferries across the Mekong to Huay Xai), from which obtaining your ticket for the slow boat is fairly easy. It takes 3 days from Chiang Mai or 2 days from Chiang Rai, if you hustle. Here's what my friend and I did, starting in Chiang Mai.

First, money conversions and approximations.

1USD = 8,000LAK (Lao kip); multiply by 8 and add three zeroes/thousand.

1USD = 32THB (Thai baht); mulitply by 3 and add a zero.

100,000LAK = 12.50USD; take away three zeroes/thousand and divide by eight.

100THB = 3USD; take away a zero and divide by 3.

January 29th, 2014: We caught a tuk-tuk from our hostel to the Chiang Mai Bus Terminal 3 (Arcade) and bought tickets for the Green Bus to Chiang Rai. The service is modern and professional-looking, with computer booking. Buses leave from platforms 20/21. My X-class ticket (middle of three bus classes) cost 185THB.

Our bus left at 10:30am on the dot, and the trip took three hours. It was a very safe, smooth ride with nice countryside views and complimentary water and snacks! VIP travel -- I was pleasantly surprised. We arrived at Chiang Rai Bus Terminal 1. (The newer Terminal 2 is is the first stop, but it is outside the city.)

Green Bus counter. This photo (and more) from biglittleplanet!

We spent the rest of the day in Chiang Rai and visited the White Temple (incredible and well worth seeing) and the night market. We stayed at FUN-D Hostel, which I highly recommend: they are familiar with travelers just passing through on the way to Laos and are very helpful and knowledgeable, not to mention that their facilities are first-class.

Extremely helpful chart detailing various ways to get from Chiang Rai to Luang Prabang, provided by FUN-D Hostel. My friend and I took the yellow and purple routes. Click to enlarge.

Tuk-tuk from CM hostel to CM bus terminal: 50THB per person

Green Bus X-class from CM to CR: 185THB

Walk from CR bus terminal to CR hostel: 0THB

One night in mixed dorm at FUN-D hostel: 260THB

Day 1 total: 495THB (~15USD)

January 30th, 2014: We were up at 5:30am to walk from our hostel to Chiang Rai Bus Terminal. We caught a local bus at 6:30am, headed for Chiang Khong. It was very easy to get on this bus; if you look like a traveler, the folks at the bus terminal will point you in the right direction. This local bus was 2/3 local Thai and 1/3 travelers with their backpacks crammed into the back. After about two hours of fields, fog, and a breathtaking sunrise, we arrived at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere (still far south of Chiang Khong) and were shepherded off the bus. This was the stop for the Fourth Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge, and the only way to get to border control from this bus stop is by overpriced songthaew, 50THB per person.

First bus 8am, last bus 6pm. Fare is 20THB for passengers with one bag. Before 8:30am, between 12-1pm, and after 4:30pm, fare is 5THB more... because of reasons.

Take note: there are transportation fees at every junction on this trip. It's gross, but everyone has to do it. The songthaew ride was a mere five minutes. In retrospect, we could have walked the distance and not missed the boat, since we were early enough. At border control, we filled out departure cards and paid 20THB to cross the bridge on a nice bus. The journey was uneventful.

Leaving Thailand from Chiang Khong Immigration. You will be in good company; hundreds of people do this every day.

The shuttle bus that carries passengers across the bridge (no more ferries that cross the river from Chiang Khong). Chiang Rai and Bokeo are the names of the two adjacent provinces in Thailand and Laos.

Crossing the Friendship Bridge over the large Mekong.

Laos!

Welcome to Laos! Get ready to shed money.

It was about 9am. At the Friendship Bridge Immigration line, a large group of travelers of all kinds was milling around wondering together how this works. Immigration was a circus. A slow, nobody-gives-a-flying-fart circus. Fill out your departure card, wait in line forever as they process your passport. It cost me 35USD for my visa-upon-arrival. I'd forgotten a passport picture, so they charged me an extra 40THB (but it wasn't to pay for a photo at the office; it was just a fee). Travelers trying to pay in baht were charged 1400THB, which is more than the American equivalent... Anyway, visa prices vary depending on your country of citizenship, so look it up beforehand. My friend and I were stuck in long lines at immigration for about one hour.

A chart for visa-on-arrival fees, also provided by FUN-D. Click to enlarge.

At about 10am, upon exiting immigration a confused and exhausted mass, we were herded into songthaews to get to the bus terminal (for one traveler headed north to Luang Namtha) and then the ferry pier in Huay Xai (for all the rest of us). It cost 100THB per person for a 16km ride, which was extremely difficult to bargain down.

Huay Xai was just a blur; we went straight to the river. Up on a hill is the office to buy your ticket -- 220,000LAK or 950THB -- and the boats are down by the water. There were about six boats, but only two were leaving that day. There are no signs dictating when the boats are to leave. They leave when they are full, or whenever the captain decides to leave. Ours happened to leave exactly at 11am, which is supposedly the correct time, but who really knows?

The slow boat pier. Boats leave wheenver.

The colorful boats that cruise down the Mekong.

The inside of the boat. Most seats are car seats taken from old minivans; some boats have less comfortable wooden benches. There is also floor seating in a back room, by the loud engine. (It seems like locals prefer this space, while the main seating area is nearly all foreigners.)

We arrived in Pakbeng, the halfway point, at 4:45pm, about six hours later. The boat ride itself was pleasant. Bring a book, cards, and your own snacks, as the boat's snacks are very expensive. It will be full of foreigners, so make some friends and get a deal on a guesthouse in Pakbeng, although all of them seem to have the same rates. I split with friends on a room with two double beds and bathroom for 500THB total (about 170THB each), not a bad deal at all. Pakbeng is a very odd town. It seems to exist only for the travelers spending one night in transit to Luang Prabang. Food is overpriced (full dinner for 180THB) and WiFi is advertised in every building (but only works in a few). There is nothing to do in the town except hang out with friends until it gets dark. Best to sleep early, anyway.

You'll notice I'm quoting some prices in baht thus far in Laos; at least in Huay Xai and Pakbeng, baht are accepted for transactions (although kip are preferred), and the two lonely ATMs in Pakbeng dispense kip. I relied on baht until I could exchange baht for kip at a bank in Luang Prabang.

Walk from CR hostel to CR bus terminal: 0THB

Local bus from CR to CK: 65THB

Tuk-tuk from rando CK bus stop to border control: 50THB

Bus to cross 4th Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge: 20THB

Immigration; visa-on-arrival for US citizens: 35USD

*If you don't have USD, they will charge 1400THB, which is about $8 more.

Immigration; pointless fee for not having a passport photo ready: 40THB

Tuk-tuk from immigration to slow boat pier in Huay Xai: 100THB

Slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang (via Pakbeng): 220,000LAK / 950THB

Guesthouse in Pakbeng: 170THB

Day 2 total: 1395THB + 35USD (~78USD)

Pakbeng's street. All the guesthouses and restaurants are basically the same; take your pick. Notice that we are now in a Communist country!

January 31st, 2014: We got up early and stocked up on food (about 300THB for a sandwich, bananas, and some pastries; enough to last me all day), then headed down to the pier at 8:30am to make sure we got seats on the boat that would depart earlier. No seats are reserved for the second leg of the journey. The boats were "scheduled" to leave at 9am and 10am; the 9am boat took off just before 9:15am.

The water is deeper and the rapids a hint rougher on this part of the river, but otherwise it's mostly the same. Reading, snacking, and napping help pass the time quickly.

It was 8 hours from Pakbeng to Luang Prabang. They will drop you off at a pier some ways out of town, from which you must take a songthaew to the city proper. (There is no good reason for this. A few years ago they needed to clear boat traffic around the actual piers for a festival, hence the change, but since it's such a lucrative venture for the songthaew drivers, no one bothered to switch back.)

Day 3 total: the price of a songthaew as best as you can negotiate!

Congrats; you just took the scenic route from Thailand to Laos for about a hundred bucks. Welcome to Luang Prabang! It's a beautiful city.

I hope you found this travel guide useful. Feel free to leave questions or comments for me below!

Elephants!

Quentin and me and our preferred mode of transportation in the jungles of Thailand.

Day 5 (Jan. 28): I rode elephants in Chiang Mai!
Everyone says that the most fun things to do in Chiang Mai require you to get out of Chiang Mai and go into the rural mountainous areas outside of the city. Dozens of adventurous "treks", like ziplining, whitewater rafting, rock climbing, or elephant riding, are all available year-round and can be booked through your hostel.

I had only planned to stay in Chiang Mai for a day, because I was itching to cross the border into Laos, but Quentin convinced me to join him on a day trip to an elephant reserve organized by Jumbo Trekker. The 1-day "mahout training session" is 2400THB (~$75), and the overnight trek is 5000THB ($155). It was recommended by our hostel, though I'm not sure what sets this one in particular apart from the many other organizations that offer the same tour package. I wanted to make sure the elephants at this reserve weren't forcibly orphaned, mistreated, or taken advantage of to appease the ceaseless flow of tourists... but in the end, I never got a straight answer and don't know. I don't know how to make sure an elephant is happy, but at least I know how to feed it as much corn and watermelon as its heart desires.

Dumbo's mother! Maybe.

Anyway. The tour group picked us up from our hostel and then wandered around the city to pick up several more amateur elephant enthusiasts(1). After an hour, we found ourselves outside the city driving past beautiful fields in our open-air songthaew, and soon after that, the paved roads gave way to bumpy, dusty dirt roads. It wasn't very comfortable, but half an hour later, we'd arrived at the elephant reserve. There were elephants wandering around freely, others being guided by mahouts (elephant guides), and lots of cows, too.

After changing into ponchos and parachute pants (our "mahout uniform" -- basically clothes that could get wet or dirty), we were briefly instructed in the commands for guiding an elephant. Basic phrases like "go", "stop", "snack", and "lift up your trunk to look photogenic". I believe the language being used was Karen, since it wasn't Thai and I'd heard that the Karen ethnic group had a special bond with elephants in this region. After practicing and mastering the commands, we were all introduced to the elephants and fed them watermelons!

My first impression: okay, elephants are huge. Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants, but even the babies were intimidatingly large. But they were also gentle. I noticed that they were tethered to trees, but soon the ones we were to ride were let go.

Hungry for something, elephant?

The local guides demonstrated how to climb onto the elephant's back via its foot and then lead it around with the commands. After scrabbling for something to hold onto, I made it safely onto the top of an elephant! I then soon learned that the elephants aren't very well "trained". They must understand the words to some degree, but our elephants were following the mahouts' unobscured bags of fruits more than they were following our voices. I am okay with that -- I'd rather the elephants be completely wild and left to their own devices, but being simply untamed and safe in the compound is a good compromise.

So on our leisurely walk through the jungle, my elephant would often stop to eat some leaves off of a bush, and I had no say in the matter. As much as I'd yell, "Kai! Kai!" that elephant wanted to eat, and eat it would. After an hour's walk, we broke for lunch(2), which was a simple curry, and then climbed aboard the gentle giants again for a longer ride that took us into the river to bathe the elephants! That part was quite fun.

I hope that the elephants enjoyed the walk, the food, and the attention. Since they're not being used for any other work anymore and are still endangered, being a tourist attraction seems to be all that's left for them. I also hope that the local mahouts enjoy their jobs. Some of them seemed to really care for the elephants; others looked like they'd rather be doing anything else.

Taking a bath with an elephant and our mahout (elephant guide).

We rode elephants for a few hours at least, and my butt was pretty sore by the end of it. But it was still a thrilling experience. It was also very relaxing, in a way, because we were out in the middle of nowhere, Thailand, riding elephants along the riverbank. Does that sound like paradise? All I needed to complete the picture was a mango smoothie and a sunset or something.

We finished up in the afternoon and were back in Chiang Mai a little after 4pm. I was exhausted, but very happy to have had such a worthwhile experience. I'd recommend a visit to an elephant reserve to anyone in Chiang Mai, but be sure that you book with a legitimate and humane organization.

The rest of the afternoon I spent washing tons of dirt and dust off my body. In the evening, I got in touch with Gwen and Xavier (the French couple I met on the train), and we had dinner at a small market just outside the Vielle Ville that has no English name. There was street food galore, and all of it was delicious. Coconut sticky rice with mango? Check. Pad thai and kao pad (fried rice)? Check. Durian? Check. Roasted taro? Check. Fruit smoothies of every kind? Check. Giant rice-stuffed sausages? Delicious. We had a great conversation, too, and I wished them good luck on the rest of their journey. At night, I went back to the Night Bazaar for a 90-cent mango-strawberry-avocado smoothie, and it was just as good as before, and then I chatted with folks from the hostel while planning the next leg of my trip: to Laos!

I'm on an elephant!

- - -
(1) I want to write about our fellow tour members. There was a French couple (why are there so many French tourists in Southeast Asia?); la femme ne parlait pas beaucoup d'anglais, et le mari was a very typical French man: brusque, opinionated, and not at all inclined to get on the back of an elephant, but since his wife really wanted to do it, eh bien. By the end of the day, I'd managed to hold a conversation with this rather dismissive man and he was impressed with my speaking ability! I don't know why there were so many French tourists in Southeast Asia, but I wanted to meet them all! ... If only for my own validation...

The second pair was really interesting: two friends who were traveling together for the first time in ten years. One woman was from France; she was rather taciturn and didn't seem at all excited to be on vacation. The other was from Socal, and everything about her practically screamed, "I'M AMERICAN!" Elena hails from "the County of Orange". She loves music festivals. She loves traveling and saves up her precious vacation days. (Europeans seem to be able to simply leave their countries whenever they damn well please.) She seems to me like someone who wants desperately to be chill instead of anxious. She is very, very talkative.

It was kind of shocking to meet someone so overwhelmingly American, let alone try to chat with her for the duration of a bumpy, ninety-minute ride into the jungle. I was amused that of the six passengers in our tuk-tuk, the four French people quickly began to debate issues of politics and culture (on the subject of headscarves for Muslim women, if I recall correctly), and the two Americans managed to sustain "small talk" for the entire time. Well, I tried to slip into the French debate as often as I could, and when that happened and I forgot to translate for Elena, she immediately whipped out her iPhone to look at her camera roll.

Elena and the French woman didn't really seem like good friends. I learned later that they'd been having a rough trip so far, since they'd approached the whole itinerary with very different goals in mind... to say the least. I encouraged Elena to dive into her Socal roots and just be as chill as possible about everything. Roll with the waves, dude. I hope that they enjoyed the rest of their trip.

(2) A smiling, demure woman came up to our table during lunch. Her face was painted with a tan cream of some sort in an interesting, indigenous-looking pattern. She was selling beads (and of course Elena bought several of them. Buy local always!) and other trinkets. We later learned that she was from Burma (Myanmar), which explains her face paint and the fact that she could not communicate with the Thai people at the reserve. I wondered how she had found herself in Chiang Mai and if she was displaced as a result of the violence in her home country.

Sorry, this is just too good not to put here. (She was trying to get on the largest elephant.)

Monday in the Park with All the Hipsters in Chiang Mai

Wat Pra Singh (taken by Quentin)

Day 4 (Jan. 27): I explored Chiang Mai on foot with a new friend.
Although I had only the vaguest of directions, I managed to find my hostel without a problem. After checking in, chilling for a bit, and finding a new French travel buddy, I was off to explore Chiang Mai!

Bunchun Art and Hostel; the art explosion lounge on the ground floor was a great space for hanging out.

Chiang Mai hostel rec: Bunchun Art and Hostel is a wonderful space created (and curated) by some super-friendly folks. It's absurdly affordable (the cheapest place I stayed at during my whole trip, not counting someone's home) and has a very unique atmosphere. The entire hostel is filled with art -- sculptures, paintings, and murals -- all of which is created by local artists. Most of it is also for sale to help support the art community. The staff speak excellent English and are very helpful with booking day tours or treks for you. My adventures in and out of Chiang Mai wouldn't have been possible with the guys at Bunchun. I'd also heard that it was a queer-friendly hostel. This wasn't immediately apparent, but on my first night, the hostel owner, Vee, invited guests to watch a local drag show (with Thailand's well-known "ladyboys"), and that was as good an indication as any.

Pad thai at a local restaurant. Mmm, peanut powder!

Anyway, I set out on Monday afternoon looking for lunch, along with Quentin, un mec de Paris who was two months in on a half-year trek around the globe. I was glad to have met someone who'd already been on so many awesome adventures (in South America and other parts of Southeast Asia), and it was also great that I could use my rusty French again. (A lot of my notes from the two days I hung out with Quentin are sprinkled with French words as a result.)

We got lunch at a local restaurant with absolutely no English on any of its menus. I simply had to point to something that looked like pad thai, and fortunately it was! It was also delicious. I wish I knew what the restaurant was called, but I can't read Thai. I just remember that it was near the art museum and had no walls and excellent decor.

After lunch, we walked from Bunchun, which is located next to the Marché de Nuit/Night Bazaar, into the Vielle Ville/Old City (about twenty minutes). The only thing I knew about Chiang Mai going in was that it is famous for having many temples. Well, this is very true. There was about one temple on every block. They were as ubiquitous as convenience stores. Quentin and I wandered around a few but then made a beeline for the largest and most famous, Wat Pra Singh. It is located on the far western end of the Old City, so it took us a while to get there. Without any real schedule, though, the leisurely walk was very nice.

Quentin and me outside the walls of Chiang Mai's Vielle Ville.

Headless Buddha. They're not supposed to exist if broken...

Wat Pra Singh is also lovely. I didn't want to bother paying the entrance fee to the actual temple, so we just wandered around the grounds and saw smaller shrines, broken Buddha sculptures in repair, and a special wishmaking ceremony involving a cup of water that you can lift to the top of a temple using a pulley in order to spill it on the roof.

We then walked across the city to the Chiang Mai Women's Prison, because there is a famous rehabilitation program for the inmates in which they learn how to give traditional Thai massages and make a decent living out of it before returning to society. Unfortunately, the prison massage center was full when we arrived, and reservations are not possible. Instead, Quentin and I headed across the city again (lots of walking today) for Buak Hat Park in the southwestern corner.

Suan Buak Hat in Chiang Mai.

Thai Dr. Seuss hands me a $1 ice cream sundae.

This park is such a gem! It is "super-paisible" and full of trees, flowers, and fountains. The perfect place to chill, and thus a great place to people-watch. Men were doing extreme yoga (and offering lessons), while other people jogged or biked around the park. Pigeons flocked to couples feeding them bread crumbs from park benches. On the grass, dozens of foreigners were sprawled out on blankets, smoking, meditating, or playing music. They all had dreadlocked hair and baggy mahout pants (elephant pants), and I wondered if I'd walked into a hipster commune of some sort.

I had such a nice time walking around the park and taking photos; I was really taken in by how beautiful the park -- and by extension Chiang Mai, and all of northern Thailand that I had seen so far -- was, and I felt like I could easily while away hours and hours here. Give me ice cream from the bizarrely-dressed ice cream man or a one-dollar mango smoothie and a book, and I'm good for the whole afternoon.

Later on, a group of older Thai men began playing hoop takraw, drawing a big crowd of specators (mostly foreigners). Quentin, who used to play basketball, was really curious about how to play; he'd imagined that it was kind of like basketball in a circle. As it turns out, the game is more like hackey sack. You can use your head, shoulder, elbow, or feet to hit the ball, and the goal is to get it into one of three hoops hanging thirty feet above the ground. This is very difficult to do. However, it is fun to watch. I kept egging Quentin on to join them in the game, but he said he was no good at soccer. I wonder if Park Ji Sung would be good at takraw.

Hoop takraw at the park in Chiang Mai. It's harder than it looks... and it actually looks hard!

Eventually, as evening approached, we made our way back to the hostel, where I got in touch with two of my Fulbrighter friends, Jet and Cameron. It's kind of a funny story: I'd seen that Jet had uploaded a photo of himself riding an elephant onto Facebook, realized that he was probably in Chiang Mai, and messaged him asking if he was in the city and able to meet up. Coincidence of coincidences: his hotel was right across the street from my hostel! So that night, we met up at the Night Bazaar.

Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. It's pretty, but kind of blah... a night blahzaar. (Taken by Quentin, who is tall.)

The market itself was pretty thorough, with hundreds of stalls selling every kind of souvenir a tourist would ever want: clothes and textiles, toys, sculptures, food, jewelry, soaps, elephant-shaped things, cheap household things, useless shiny things, and the like. I found it rather lacking in authenticity, though, so I didn't look around much. I also don't recommend eating at the food court that is attached to the market. You have to purchase food tickets that can be used at the vendors (and you can return any that you don't use for a full refund), but the vendors are pricey and the food is nothing special.

Left to right: me, Cameron, Quentin, and Jet at the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar.

Anyway, it was really nice to see Jet and Cameron and exchange stories. They had just been to Malaysia and regaled us with some choice horror stories... we also bonded over these amazing fruit shakes that we found. Okay, no, seriously, this is the best thing in Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai food rec: There is a tiny shake shack found at the back corner of the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar, next to the large stage where people dance sometimes. The shack is run by a smiling, friendly woman who makes the most delicious and cheap fruit shakes ever. The fruit smoothies are only 20 baht, and the mixed shakes are 30 baht (90 cents in USD). And she has avocadoes! The "Sweetsunrise" shake is a whole mango, a whole banana, and a whole freaking avocado mixed with syrup and condensed milk for 90 freaking cents! What?! The shake portion is so large that you have to take a sip of it first (the "taste test") before she can fill it up and put the cap on. So this pretty much blows my mind. I don't know how she makes a profit, but take me back to this shake shack and I will buy ten freaking fruit smoothies from her. Every day. They were that amazing.

The one-woman shake shack in Chiang Mai. LOOK AVOCADOES!

DRINK THIS. IT IS DELICIOUS AND IT COSTS 90 CENTS. SCREW YOU, JAMBA JUICE.

Quentin and I went back to the hostel that night and hung out for a while with the staff and fellow travelers, spreading the gospel of the tiny shake shack with avocadoes.

And... here are some SNAKES.

Hissss...

The People I Met on the Train

You have all been clamoring for knowledge of my whereabouts, naturally. I started an ambitious series of posts about my travels in Thailand and Laos, and then dropped off the face of the Internet for a week! My apologies. I went to North Korea, where there is essentially no Internet access, and I felt that it would be best to tell as few people as possible. In due time, I will write all about it. But first -- that overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai!

The dining car of the train. At night, it turns into a party car. I loaded up on snacks back at the station so that I would never have to come here.

Day 3-4 (Jan. 26-27): I rode a sleeper train for 18 hours from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.
I got all of my travel information from blogs and Seat61. That website is fantastic and has reliable, easy-to-understand information. My ticket was bought for me by a friend who went to a local train station (not even the main station, Hualamphong, so I guess you can buy tickets anywhere as long as you can speak Thai) the morning of my departure. My train was to leave around 6pm on the 26th and arrive at 8am the following day. Well, that didn't happen.

It left about fifteen minutes late, and that was just the beginning of things. I wasn't paying attention to the timeliness, but for each of the half-dozen stops we made, the train was getting further and further behind schedule. Often it had to pull to a side track to let other trains pass. We eventually arrived in Chiang Mai 3.5 hours late!

You'd think that this eternally slow train ride would have been insufferably boring, but fortunately, it was quite the opposite. Although my car was half-empty when I boarded at Bangkok, it continually filled up with people throughout the night. In my second-class sleeper car, about half the passengers were Thai people, and the other half were fellow travelers. I met quite a number of characters, including a South Dakotan named Steve who has retired in Thailand and spends his days drinking and bumming around in Chiang Mai and a friendly French couple.

Following Thai politics and the protests.

Steve wore an ivory pendant carved into the shape of an elephant and a large, khaki-colored short-sleeved shirt. He ordered the somewhat pricey dining car dinner and beer at night and talked at me about his travels. He ordered the somewhat pricey dining car coffee the next morning and talked at me about his time in Vietnam and why he decided he'd never go back to America. When I offered my two cents on American politics, he seemed like he couldn't be bothered to voice his disagreement. We lapsed into silence. I read the Thai newspaper he had on him, with reports on the forthcoming elections, the king's offer to cover hospital bills for victims of protest violence, and the warrants issued for the arrest of the opposition party's leaders. He read my copy of David Foster Wallace's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, but stopped after a few pages and looked out the window instead. "I can tell this is the kind of book that's going to make me think more than I want to," he said. The view of the Thai countryside from the train windows was lovely.

Gwen and Xavier had the seat/bunks across the aisle from mine. I heard them speaking in French but was too shy at first to hop into their conversation. Fortunately, at that time Steve had stationed himself in my seat/bunk, since his had been converted into beds too early, and he wanted his beer and conversation. He talked at the French couple, but it was difficult because Xavier was not too good at English, and Steve was also noticeably hard of hearing. I added to the conversation in English until Steve went to bed, after which I switched to French and talked to Gwen and Xavier about traveling and the exciting things they were planning for their time in Thailand.

Later on in the evening, we were joined by another French man, who if I recall correctly was also named Steve. He had messy, wispy blond hair and was dressed in baggy clothes that could have been local garb, although the locals here wear jeans and t-shirts. French Steve had already met every single French person on our train, walking up and down the cars, and he also spoke fluent English. He had just arrived from the diner car -- which is turned into a party car complete with lights an dancing at night -- when we met. Immediately, French Steve was delighted by the fact that I was American but had studied French for years. He introduced me to a bunch of other French travelers on the same train later:

Steve: He speaks French!
French woman traveling with her mother: Haha, okay.
Steve: No, really! He's from California but he speaks French! Without an accent!
French woman: Wait, you're not kidding?
Me: Um, hello.
French woman: Oh, hello!

The conversation was even more awkward because the French woman was already in her bunk bed, ready to sleep. These are the fold-down bunk beds. The seat/bunks also fold out to create more spacious beds on the bottom. I was in a top bunk.

I'm not going to lie; I know my French isn't perfect, but I was very pleased that a few months abroad in France helped me improve my accent enough that a random French person would compliment me on it. It's different from when Koreans tell me my Korean is really good, because I know Koreans only say that out of, like, habit or something and that my Korean is actually rather poor for the amount of time I've been studying it. But the French are stingy with their praise, aren't they? So I was happy and really enjoyed passing the evening doing language exchange on the train with Gwen, Xavier, and French Steve.

The ride was smooth and time really flew by. I brushed my teeth in the bathroom car and then went to sleep in my seat/bunk, which had been folded out to make a very small but cozy bed, reachable by a narrow ladder. There was a curtain for privacy and a small pocket for my valuables. I felt safe and comfortable, if a bit claustrophobic. It was kind of like sleeping in a lighted coffin. I woke up a few times in the night when the train would stop, but it wasn't bad at all. And in the morning, the view outside was quite pretty, as I've already said.

Fields in northern Thailand, framed by the train window.

We arrived in Chiang Mai a little after noon on the 27th. American Steve offered to split a hotel room, but I'd already planned on staying at a certain hostel. I walked into town with yet another French person, chatting and being thankful that I'd chosen to walk instead of take a tuk-tuk on this beautiful day. Adventures in Chiang Mai await!