I needed a break
and thanks to the Hebrew calendar I got one. I am sick and tired of going to
Bangkok for the fast, although I have a warm spot in my heart for Chabad
Bangkok and R. Nehemia. But I just couldn’t take the traffic and the pollution
again this year, so I decided to fly to Chaing Mai instead.
The Udan Thani
airport does not have the charm of small provincial airports I have come to
love, that miniature copy status that makes small airports so cool. But you do
have a wonderful sense of adventure when instead of being shuttled to your
aircraft in a bus, you walk out onto the runway. The airplane has propellers
and looks more like a big insect than a supersonic half-way-across-the-globe-streamlined
affair. Still, as you climb the stairs you hope that the same care was given to
this little bumblebee as was to the great transcontinental eagles.
The flight to
Chaing Mai takes about an hour and a half. On-flight refreshments are nuts and
water – perfect for the land of elephants!
Placing my trust
in the Guide du Routard I had reserved a room in thankless Wiriya House. 600
bhat for a room with a one speed air-conditioner and you have to pay for
non-functioning internet to boot! In the morning, the sleepy guys downstairs
had no idea about coffee or breakfast and could only say, in reference to their
boss, “Madame No!”
I walked down to
the Israeli quarter to check out the Chabad house and see if a closer
alternative existed and there I met the kind of travel agent you dream of.
Israel Yehoshua is a problem solver: if you’re late he can turn back the clock
and if you’re early he can make the extra time worthwhile. His staff is
wonderful and friendly. His agency is called Israel 669, 189/14 Changklan Road
Phone number is 053-820902, cell number 087-1841642 and if you’re calling from
Israel or have an Israeli phone in Thailand call 039-707333.
He booked me
into a splendid hotel just around the corner from there for only 700 Bhat,
internet included.
Yom Kippur was
Yom Kippur. You fast and feel a little hungry for a while but that soon wears
off as the importance of the day hits you. Moments of reflection and spiritual
accounting give way to the ecstasy of the moment. The Rabbi was not feeling too
well the day I met him but he was heroic on Yom Kippur. Also, as always, it is
a pleasure to mix with Israelis again, speak the language and revisit through
memory the places of my youth. I met a young singer-composer from my old
neighbourhood of Nachlaot נחלאות in Jerusalem and together we spent hours
mind-walking up and down the white stone streets and through the courtyards of
that wonderful quarter. The village wells, stone walls and vaulted windows came
alive for me, the old women bringing you chicken soup when you get sick, the
marvellous kube restaurant on Agrippas Street, the way the water would
evaporate off the Street of Steps רחוב המדרגות after a late spring rain sending
a ghostly sheet of white steam into the blue vibrant sky. Further on the cries
and pulls of Machaneh Yehuda Market שוק מחנה יהודה . We were locked into the sweetness
of it, the fraternity of it.
Chiang Mai also has
a large French community and the day after the fast I had a delicious magret de
canard at La Terrasse, 59/5 Loi Kroh Rd. Washed down with a carafe of red from
the South of France and Jean’s pommes de terre sautées, it was worth fasting
for.
Another
wonderful thing for a weekend in Chiang Mai are the bookshops. Backstreet Books
has two locations and is simply brimming over with English and French books. I
was able to find books I have been looking for for years: the poetry of Rumi
and Yeat’s collection of Irish Mythology. I even found the classic Portnoy’s
Complaint to help Marie-Do understand the origin of certain disorders.
In Vientiane
there are few vestiges of the Glorious Past, but Chiang Mai still has some old
walls and Great Gates. Nice again to touch that history and see old bricks.
Otherwise here in Asia it is all too easy to forget that there is a past.
Even if you do
live in Southeast Asia and are used to it, it’s nice to stop and visit a temple
and let the calm of it invade you.
Chiang Mai, we
know, is the gateway to Thailand’s northern tribal lands. Next time…
No comments:
Post a Comment