Volume 12

Anniversary Edition

I took the opportunity to measure time at the one-year anniversary of my travels. While purists might question the inclusion of my summer hiatus to the USA as "traveling", I included it because it is an essential part of who I am right now (along with every other experience, decision and emotion) and because its relevance has been elevated to that of milestone. I now consider my trip to America the equivalent of a half-time break. While this might cause some to ask, "is Keith traveling for another year?" the more relevant consideration is "what was the first half?" I view the first half not as the last year of travel, but as the previous 36 years of this life (I guess that makes my second half the next 36 years and anything after that "sudden-death" overtime). This also provides mathematical support to those of you who suspect that I am experiencing a midlife crisis.

It is impossible not to draw comparisons between this visit to Thailand and my initial stay during earth's previous lap around the sun. I no longer consider Thailand a "third-world" country because it passes my one defining test: it gathers and removes trash. Now equipped with a broader basis of comparison, I see Thailand as traveling with training wheels. This relative safety has enabled us the luxury to indulge in varying levels of trust. Level one was visiting a Thai dentist (no cavities and a clean smile for $13 with no appointment). A greater leap of faith was trusting travel agents with our passports (to obtain visas to Laos) and our cash (100% down for January's airline tickets to India). It felt good to trust (even better now that we are in possession of our tickets, passports and visas).

When I arrived in Thailand a year ago, I had no idea how little I knew. With luck, help and persistence I have been able to learn enough to recognize that there is still a wealth of wisdom and experience that continues to elude (and enchant) me. In pursuit thereof, Carrie and I turned the infinite course guide of Life University to the Thai massage section and decided to start there. There is here in Chaing Mai and here is good.

We found Chaing Mai a rarity among Asian cities because we did not feel the urgent desire to escape to the countryside. Thailand's second largest city has an amazing collection of Wats (ornate Thai temples) whose prevalence is roughly the same as Starbuck franchises in San Francisco (and people say we have no culture). The people of Chaing Mai (of whom there are not an exasperating excess) are generally well educated, friendly and happy (I theorize that this happiness is because they get to eat Thai food everyday). Compared to Bangkok, the air is cleaner and the essential items (guesthouse, food, e-mail, beer and clothing) that comprise our TPI (traveler price index) are all cheaper. However, the real difference is the ease of getting around. We rented bicycles ($0.25 a day) for our two-week stay. The six-speeded mountain-bike wannabes were more than adequate for our 15-minute cross-town commute to class (but did not inspire us to attack the surrounding hillsides). We quickly learned a path to class that avoided the bulk of the traffic by winding through the peaceful red-bricked back streets. Even when we were forced to cross one of the main streets, it was not a traumatic experience (we just stepped into a sliver of a gap and let the traffic flow around us as we made our way to the other side)(more of that trust stuff). Though there are a few traffic signals, the cars, trucks, scooters and 3-wheeled rickshaws generally meander through the city in a tai chi like flow (relatively slow, seldom stopping) that seems far more peaceful than typical city traffic patterns (hell-bent accelerations interrupted by frequent and frustrating standstills).

In observing this relatively peaceful flow, I recognized what draws me to a bicycle as a less stressful (middle path) means of transportation (or maybe since the massage school ate our entire daily budget we didn't want to pay the extra couple bucks a day for a scooter). Though some consider Chaing Mai touristy, I prefer like one traveler's view that Chaing Mai is a "babe-magnet training ground" (equally applicable to both sexes). How can one of the many courses in Thai massage and/or Thai cooking hurt a romantically inclined person's chance of making a favorable impression? With that being said, I should note that despite Thailand's notoriety as a sex center, the main similarity between Thai massage and the horizontal bop is that when done properly, both participants enjoy the experience and feel they have received a good work out.

One certainly can't fake their way through a Thai massage (on more than one occasion I experienced performance anxiety). During the first week of class, I impatiently doubted I would ever learn the seemingly endless choreography of stretches, presses, energy lines and transitions. While admittedly vague, my "second half" game plan certainly did not include stressing out over massage school. It was only after I recognized the source of my anxiety as a self-imposed standard of perfection (an all-too-frequent "first half" theme) that I began to enjoy the learning process. If this were all I learned from the course, it would have been a success. However, there was so much more. Our class days at ITM (The Institute of Thai Massage) began with an hour of yoga and tai chi. At first, I found this routine awkward, but my skepticism shifted to appreciation as I learned that each part of the morning exercises corresponded to some movement, stretch or position that we would encounter in the massage routine. The remainder of the day was devoted to detailed demonstrations and staff-monitored hands-on practice. Occasionally during these practice sessions, the recipients felt more mauled than massaged, but there always came a time for the maulee to change positions and become mauler.

The instruction definitely provided a strong base of knowledge. But it wasn't until we had experienced a couple of full (paid) massages from staff members that we had a good perspective of how the massages were supposed to feel. After two weeks of training, I do not consider myself a masseur (nor do I see massage as my future career). I do however, look forward to continuing to practice and to share the positive powers of human touch.

We are off to Laos tomorrow, but hope to return to Chaing Mai some day for more massage training and the cooking classes. By the way, if I ever start to sound or act like a babe-magnet, please tell me before my favorite massage partner reverts to mauling me.