Chaing Mai was wonderful. At 6pm I met two friends Ton and Ying at Hua Lumpong station and then we went to Zien's house. Ziens house is actually a storage warehouse barried deep in the depths of China Town. Her Father was extremely welcoming and sprung up from his workfloor desk and took to the second floor to serve us food. We hung out there for a while, took one of the elevators up to Zien's room and sleep for a while longer. Woke up at 9, Mom and Dad raced us back to Hua Lumpong for our 9:30 train.

After finding our car, and our two reserved seats, we waited another half hour to get moving. If you've never been in a third class car on the Thai government-owned railways, it's a real trip. I was very glad I had an adaquate dossage of menthol to drown out the smells that would seep from the stainless steel bathroom at annual stops. The car was packed with people. Makes you feel bad sitting on your paid-for bench as an 80 year old couple try to contort themselves to sleep on eachothers backs in the half-meter wide isle. Some people just sitting on family members. Actually, besides the bathroom, we were pretty comfortable. Zein's Mom had pushed a tote bag full of tubaware food, snacks, and water, and Ying brought blankets. Good thing too. About 2hrs out of BKK it gets cold. Near 15 degrees I would expect. Meter long seats kept us warm too. The designer contracted to build train benches, for some reason, used the odd formula butt+butt-20cm=bench length.

I can't say 14 hours flew by, but it did eventually pass. The four of us gave up on real sleep at about 8 am when we were near Lampang. Beautiful sunlight going through the back country at the time of the morning. At noon we reached the Chiang Mai platform. Ying's family, who live in Chiang Mai came and met us after a few minutes. Ying's Dad is a Christian pastor/van driver in BKK, so we had our own private transportation throughout the trip. We went to Ying's house, in-out showers, and back in the van after 15 minutes.

We picked up Ying's older brother P'Chay at his dorm and then went across town to pickup his girlfriend. They both brought pretty sizeable bags which confused me a little. We stoped and had noodles at a small place in the Mae Rim district. Chay and his girlfriend were nice, to me at least, but the two siblings were always exchanging arm twists, bad-mouthing, head slaps, and "who loves Mom the most" competitions throughout the trip. We finished, got it the van and started driving. After 30 minutes I started to wonder what was next, as the house wasn't very far from the noodle shop. After another few minutes a road sign ไปเชียงราย cause my eye. Oh. I guess we're going to Chiang Rai too.

It only took about 3 hours to get there. "There" is the church-owned retreat(?). I don't know what to call it really. The mountain top it sits on is fairly large, big enough to hold 5-6 buildings, a radio station, steple, and a campfire and field in the center of it all. We ate tons of food as soon as we arrived. Pork cooked on sticks (slabs, 2m sticks) over small fires, steamed veggies, spicy sauces, curries, good stuff. It was pitch black outside and there were 5 or so tables spread out around this large field, 6 people to a table. I didn't get to meet half of the people there both nights.

Afterwards we setup tents by flashlight. Ton and I got a big tent to ourselves which became the hangout spot for cards.

The next morning we had cake(!?) for breakfast and took off to the Mae Sai to the border. Shoped, ate, sat in the van, then went back to Chiang Rai. There we stoped an rode the elephants. Beautiful spot, i'll take somebody back for sure. Not as touristy as the Conservation Center in Chiang Mai or the Hospital in Lampang and a nice ride throught the small village. Of course there are the little hill tribe girls and old ladies pushing earings and jewelry like cocaine on the corners of the roads.

More food back at the old church grounds, then a campfire. At some point we all got in a large group of lawn chairs around the fire and listened to a peptalk/sermon about New Years.
- Apparently (I had no idea) the word January comes from the word Janus, which ment two ways. January was named so because it was a time to forget the cold winter behind and concentrate on its ending. I have no idea if this is true, could be totally buffalo poo, but if someone knows please tell me.
The main points to this talk were being a time for looking forward and forgeting the past. Personally I think that might just lead to "making the same mistake" and that remembering the past can be a really good thing but, eh, I'm not the guy's speach writer.

Later in the night we launched the Northern traditional hot air lanterns. Mine went up, dropped, nearly burnt down our tent across the field. Somebody ran and caught up with it, then it filled and went up happily. Not sure what that means for my luck this year.

The countdown itself wasn't too spectacualar. Twenty people eating rice stew and watching a 10" tv set with a Grammy concert in BKK. Clash was horrible. Embarassing actually. Everyone scrambled to send last minute sms greetings before 12pm. After cheering for a brief moment we all went back to playing cards in the tile floored church.

Ton and I woke up and packed or stuff. No cake that day. Just as well, I'm not a big fan. We loaded the vans then had Sunday mass. Not exactly a mass of people. Pastor, Zien, Ton, me, Ying, her mother, uncle, uncles kids (3), cousin, aunt, another aunt, brother 1 2 and 3, and the girlfriend all sat around a table that ran the length of this room. Two of the brothers fell asleep. P'Chay had glasses on so it was hard to notice but the head tilt and open mouth were dead give aways. Chay's girlfriend was also looking uncomfortble and elbowing him (I mean it) the whole time. More about looking to the future and a prayer for our journey home. More prays getting in the car, but thats another story. I was thanking God for the electric waterheater in one of the cabins. Water at 10c from the night before is something I wish upon no living soul.

We left at about 2 I think and got back to the house in Chiang Mai. There we watched mid-day television and entertained cousins. In the evening we ate lots of food again, but no fire pits and pig roasts. I enjoyed eating with some grandmothers and talking wih Ying's dad for a bit. Hes such a nice guy and very laid back. Much more laid back than any pastors I'd previously met. After cleaning up we piled in the van and went shopping at a market downtown. Not the Night Bazaar, but not too far away either. That was fun too. I scored some comics, noodles, and keychains.

We were all so tired at that point. Ton and I couldn't sleep on the matress, and agreed that the mats in the corner were a better choice. Pushed the matress up against the wall and slept. I slept very well and woke up about 9. Ton slept well too and woke up a half hour later. Lots more food for breakfast, finger food in large quantities. We loaded the van and dropped P'Chay off at his apartment, then started the drive to Bangkok.

Driving normally takes about 10-11 hours depending on traffic. We left at noon and got to Lamapang about 4:30 and stoped for gas. So many people at this gastation I didn't realize that I'd been here many many times before. I was only a few minutes from the village and in Thoen. We ate dinner and relieved ourselves slowly. Back on the road again by 5:00. The reason for all the people was the 4 day weekend given for New Years which meant a good portition of the Northern population living in BKK came home and returned at once. So many people. Driving was very slow, but dead stoped in Nakorn Sawan for about 3 hours around 9:00. We droped Ton off and then myself at 2:00am.

End of boring retelling of my New Years holiday.



Ying and Ton trying to sleep the first night



Ying's brother applying whitening cream.



Zein and Dan in the van