The Monk who rode his Honda (Part Un)

Dearest Blog,                                                                                                                    

Its been a while since we saw each other and I am sure the silence in our communication has only made us grow more richer in our understanding of our self during this extended period.

Despite all this silence, you have filled a unique space within me and there hasn't been a day when I would think of how much you would like to hear a day's story that inspired me. So here I start again telling you more stories as we travel along. Glad you missed me.

Now, I must tell you a story however, a true story that is filled with determination, grit, inspiration and the quest to keep fighting hard despite difficult conditions. Yes, this true story takes place in the city of god - Mae Sot, Thailand where I rode a motorbike for 4 days and discovered what I now must share with you.

Yours Truly,
Me
05th October 2011

The Monk who rode his Honda
When I woke up on my Birthday morning, it seemed like a pretty normal day except this was the town of Mae Sot, Thailand where more than half the population were refugees from Burma numbering up to around 100000 or more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_Sot.
I was invited by Mike - my local host who was introduced to me through a beautiful and unique soul - Whitney Haruf, (who also became a very good friend of mine instantly), to visit the Burmese Refugee Youth Art Studio where he taught art. I looked at my calendar (as it had become a habit of the urban dweller inside of me) and it was but of course empty. What was I thinking, I hardly knew two people in this entire town and had no agenda on my plate for the day, which begs the question - what was I doing here in the first place? Historically, the maximum number of troops from the Thai army was stationed in Mae Sot, the road from Mae Sot to Tak had more security checks than the airports of United States, a large percent of refugees who visited the Mae Sot clinic suffered from injuries that were directly due to land mines in the border areas between Thailand and Myanmar and yet Mae Sot had a friendship bridge that symbolized peace and goodwill between the two nations - a far cry from reality.

Burmese Refugees of Mae Sot

A few months earlier, back in Canada, I remember being at a meditation and yoga retreat where I was introduced to this amazing traveling saint - Chris Bradley who spoke at length about his experiences in Thailand and perhaps some of those incredible stories resonated with me and ultimately it led me to the epicenter of real Thailand. One way or another I was in for a truly shocking but life changing experience that was just waiting to unfold. "Happy Birthday Vik", said Mike with a very excited voice, "Just follow me and stick to the left side of the road, the cars here like to honk and annoy cyclists". So we rode out on our bicycles to the Art Studio that was land-marked by a yellow gas pump. It was a common sight to have these odd and colourful gas pumps in places that you would least expect - like outside a residential home for starters.

Artists at the studio in Mae Sot

Tiles made by Burmese refugees

The studio was remarkably colorful and sparks of creativity were flying all around the place. A woman was painting a coat of blue on ceramic tiles and she was introduced to be as a co-designer. All the ceramic art was to be a part of a project that involved building a guesthouse that was designed to provide sustainability for the current art studio. The uniqueness of this guesthouse lay in the concept of sustenance.  To make this more significant, all the artwork that was to be furnished within the guesthouse was designed and created by the staff and students of the art studio, most of them being refugees.
It was a project that everyone at the studio took pride in and put a lot of soul into. I observed silently as the initial timidity of the Burmese students quickly evaporated into a calm confidence that reminded me of Indian scooters who needed a manual kick start in case the auto ignition switch failed. Once the creative juices were on fire, the students started contributing towards ideas on creating a site map of the entire studio space and turning it into a garden artifact.

Mike and his students

Mike was a good teacher that inspired and encouraged his students to add their own ideas to the creative pool. Somehow that day, some of the students seemed a bit shy and intrigued by my presence there while it made the others want to impress their teacher even more. "They are a bit slow today, I am not sure why", said Mike with a bit of disappointment.  After exchanging a few ideas with Mike, I smiled and decided to let the teacher and his students do their usual bonding. Walking out into the garden, I really wanted to explore life at Mae Sot more. My experiences at Pai were creating serious withdrawal symptoms and I needed to hit the road again.  And so my search for a motorcycle began with the furious vigor of an inspired painter who's just had a vision of the perfect painting in his head.

The coolest restaurant in Mae Sot

After a few phone calls, a few misdirections and some frustration, I finally reached a Honda showroom where motorbikes were being rented out. It felt like drinking cold beer on a warm sunny day. Now I was ready to take on the world. I felt tempted to paint my face blue just like Sir William Wallace but then the thought of wearing a checkered skirt with no underwear on a motorcycle quickly dissipated this splurge of excitement. This was the best birthday gift I had ever given myself.

Mike and Whitney treating me

That night as Whitney and Mike treated me to a dinner in a posh, artsy (by Mae Sot standards) Burmese restaurant and even ordered a special Burmese cake to celebrate the occasion, I was celebrating in my own way, the discovery of the free spirit and the appreciation for what freedom meant in a rough but fully real little town of Mae Sot.

"Happy Birthday Vik", said Mike with a smile.

(To be Continued....)

The Children of Pakui

"Its not easy to build a school in a country where your visa needs to be renewed every year even though you are married to a Thai woman", says Paulo, the owner of the resort - Old Tree's house in Thaton, Thailand.

" I am a Builder" - Paulo, Tha Ton

 A 61 year old french settler whose eyes always lit up when he spoke about the kids was helping me peel the layers of Thailand's external skin as he explained, "Its a good economy with education and health care being provided in abundance for every Thai person, well, almost every Thai, with the exception of this hill tribe called Lahu"

The Lahu's are on their own when it comes to education with minimal support from the government. This was enough to get Paulo thinking. 

The Old Tree house is a guest house located in the city of Tha Ton http://www.oldtreeshouse.net/en/en_gallerie.html and has been beautifully built and designed by Paulo himself. He believes in eco-tourism. What he didn't realize was that social tourism was a natural fall-out of his original business plan which to this day he claims he didn't actually exist. 

The Pakui School of Hope

Having been a builder his entire life, he felt it was time to give back and settled in Thailand where he met his wife and has been living in Tha Ton for the last 13 years.  Paulo also provides shelter for the Chan refugees from Myanmar. 

The Pakui School of hope houses 49 children all of whom belong to the Pakui Village. There are about 250 people belonging to the Lahu tribe and are led by their Chief.  When a tribe member gets married and has kids, they have to move out of the village in order to maintain the balance. The village cannot afford to house more than the magic 250.  

The Children of Pakui

The Painted Classroom

The kids had a mesmerizingly delightful free spirit to them and Paulo explained to me about the educational system and how they decided to adopt local teachers primarily to keep costs low. Slowly, one room expanded into three and a local group approached Paulo to help hand paint the walls in the class rooms. 

Yo Wassup

The kids were initially shy but super cute and extremely sincere and slowly started opening up to me. I noticed how at times the kids took turns and sought to be excused from the classroom to get some fresh air and tap some ping pong which is a famous sport in Thailand.  I guess it's a universal curiosity with kids and cameras and my mind raced to the memories of a 6 year old kid from Madras, India that held his first Kodak Entralite 10 camera and went trigger happy. I guess camera's and me have had a long standing and a very evolved partnership since then. As I held my camera, focussing away, a bunch of kids came up to me and pretended to be models. 

"We are always looking for ideas and people to exchange ideas with and are open to support from any part of the world", mused Paulo. I could sense that this man had done a lot all by himself and took one day off in a week to completely shut down and relax - this was his vacation.  To him it didn't matter how little or how much was achieved during that 13 year window as long as he stayed true to what he knew - 'building'. 

To me on the other hand, Paulo is a classic example of someone who started off with a skillset that changed his mindset and his approach to life for ever, he went from building structures to building lives...

Ping me!

I walked away from Pakui totally inspired, but also intrigued. There were a million ideas floating in my head, but first, I would need to connect Paulo to the Children's Project and also my next idea was to promote a tea within The Tea Garage portfolio named after Paulo and his community.  I shared this idea with Paulo who smiled and exclaimed - "you have plenty of good ideas - I wish you well"

It's time to start drinking more tea and this time it will be an Oolong from Doi Mae Salong which I decided would be the next logical stop. 

"There's a Songthaew http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songthaew to Mae Salong in 30 minutes, I'll drop you at the pick up point"

So while its back on the road for me again, The magic of Tha Ton will keep steeping in my cup for a long time.