Heat, Humidity, and the Day Market

I have been hot here in Thailand. I think that message has come through. Thailand is a country of heat and humidity, there is no way around this fact. But there are times when the heat and humidity are a little worse than others. Today was one of the days in the middle; however, if you go the wrong places or do the wrong activities, those middle days can become blistering and nearly unbearable. But to tell this story, we need to go back in time to this morning…

The morning began like many other mornings in Apartment 440, PT Residence. I awoke to my alarm, quickly got ready for my day, and then hurried off to Uniserv. Today was a short day of orientation, consisting of the final group presenting their lesson plan and the big reveal of our placements for Immersion Week. (*Imagine a drumroll…) I have been placed…wait for it…at…Wildflower. As a refresher, for those joining us late (or in case I am just totally forgetful and haven’t actually written about this yet and have only imagined it), Wildflower is an organization for women in crisis located just outside the city of Chiang Mai. The women living at Wildflower are often single mothers who have been abused, are refugees from a neighboring country, or come from a Hill Tribe in the mountains (who are not treated as well as the city folk). There are about 15 women there now and they vary in age from 16 (she had a baby last year at 15 years old) to 30 or so. The women all have at least one child and they live and work at Wildflower where they receive classes in English, gardening (farming), making handicrafts, cooking, health, childcare, etc. It is an amazing program started by an American woman and her American-Asian husband who traveled here to Thailand, decided to stay, and saw a great need for care of single parent women that the system is often unable or unwilling to assist. Women who have gone through the program often either become integrated into local communities or return to school and even go to University for higher education.

The Immersion Week program consists of three possible placements: Mae Rim, where interns live with a family, work with the family, and teach at the local children’s school; King’s Project, where interns live in a hut at the center of a small community and work in forest restoration in the Thai rainforest; and Wildflower. When the various projects were first described to us I wanted to go to King’s Project as it would be extremely interesting to compare my time spent in Forestry Camp in the Sierra Nevada forest to the Thai forest here. However, I am now getting extremely exciting about my impending stay at Wildflower. There are four of us going (two girls and two guys); we will be working with the women in their gardens, teaching them conversational English, and helping create the handicrafts they later sell at the local markets. It should be an incredible experience.

After a group discussion on each of the three projects we were set free for the rest of the day and all of tomorrow! Empty bellies sent us in search of a quick meal and soon we were off to celebrate and make the most of our free time. The placements for Immersion necessitated another shopping trip, this time to the best local bookstore, DK Books, for some children’s books in English as gifts for the families we will be staying with (or for the group we will be staying with, as is the case for me), and to the Day Market, which is located outside the bounds of the Old City. Our time at the bookstore was fun. It is always an interesting experience seeing familiar authors in such foreign languages, such as Plato and JK Rowling (Harry Potter). We spent a long time picking out the perfect books for our groups and then decided to brave the afternoon heat of Chiang Mai on a 15 minute walk to the Day Market.

It took some searching and many stops for directions, but we finally achieved our goal when we reached a grouping of streets crowded with people, where the sidewalks were edged with stalls full of wares. Now, this market is very different than the other markets I have previously described. The Sunday Walking Market and the Night Bazaars cater to the tourists of Chiang Mai. The stalls at those markets are full of “native clothing,” “traditional art,” and thousands of mini Buddha statues that can be bought in bulk and lugged back as souvenirs (something I will not subject you all to). The Day Market is a completely different beast all together. This market is made for the locals and is full of the items anyone living permanently in Chiang Mai or the surrounding regions might require (clothes, undergarments, bedding, raw food, etc.). There simply aren’t adequate words to describe the intensity of the market, but I will give it a try.

By the time we arrived at the market, after our long trek, I was beyond hot and entering the realm of sweltering. The stalls of the market are so close together that they form an endless chain stretching along as far as the eye can see. Tarps covering the stalls form a roof line that obscures the vision and soon all you can see is the blur of the market and all you can feel is the sun beating down on you. When you finally find a small crack in the line of stalls, you can dash in and walk along the small strip of sidewalk left to pedestrians. The stalls almost completely obliterate the view of the buildings that actually form the block, but at the location of the Day Market this does not matter. The building behind the stalls is actually a part of the market as well. As you turn right at an intersection and follow the stalls inward (often in a search for the air conditioning you are sure must be hidden inside), you are led around as if the Market is a hive leading you into the center. When you finally reach the interior you are confronted with lines upon lines of food stalls, filled with raw and fried foods. The area above this food market is open, stretching to the ceiling, but along the sides are more stalls, about three stories filled with hundreds of stalls. Simply the sight of all these sellers is exhausting and the heat and humidity of the building is unimaginable. No photograph could truly capture the sight, smell, and feel of this place and words fail completely. After only five minutes I was desperate to leave and never return. The ability to survive in that environment must be either bread into the bones, learned over a lifetime, or suffered from necessity.

This is not to say that there is anything wrong with the way this market is run, simply that it was too great a culture shock for this poor bookwormy traveler. The Market was teaming with people of all types, all busy and intent on their tasks. However, the spirit of the Thai remained true even in this frenzied atmosphere. As I was at my lowest (and hottest point), sure I could not take any more, I saw an old man walking down the sidewalk between stalls with his baby grandson in his arms. The baby was covered with sweat and obviously miserable even in his sleeping state and I’m sure he was getting heavy. The man was quietly walking along and the sight he made as I saw him, so sweet a figure of the patient older generation with the new, made me smile. At that moment he looked up at me and smiled back, a simple gesture that is so often lacking everywhere in the world but here. At home, I would have passed him on the street (probably as the baby sat in a stroller) and a smile would have gone unnoticed (as no eye contact is made) or ignored (as a smile could even be interpreted as rude), but here it is simply taken as it was meant, a gesture of friendliness and a shared moment. This rejuvenated me and allowed me to finish my time in the Market with a lighter step and a renewed feeling of well being. Although I might have failed my test of surviving as a native (I clearly cannot handle their true method of shopping), it was an experience I will remember.

I ran from the Day Market as soon as our group had reconvened and we immediately hopped in a red truck to return to the Chiang Mai that we love and adore (and at least partially understand). By this time I was desperate and in great need of some strong rejuvenating force, so I ran into my apartment, changed quickly into my swim suit, and headed to the pool. I was in such a rush to be in the water by this point that I literally ran part of the way and immediately submerged myself, content to simply sit on the bottom of the pool until the need for air drove me to the surface. I stayed in the water, alternately swimming and simply floating, for about an hour until it was time to return to the apartment for a shower. After my shower, we all (both the Res group and the BABSEA house group) met at the Mexican restaurant we had stopped at last night, for an evening of food and margaritas with our Thai language teachers. I know I promised no more non-Thai food, but I claim immunity as the location of our meal was chosen by a higher power than myself and I could not change it. I had a good time and am glad I went, but am now extremely tired from my long day and ready to get some sleep. I wanted to tell you a little about my plans for tomorrow (I have the whole day free), but they are looking a little up in the air at the moment, so we shall all have to wait a little longer and see what the present future holds once it becomes the past. :)