Saying Goodbye and Hello to Old Friends

It wasn't easy saying goodbye to Stefan and his daughters when they left for Germany last week.  "I'm gonna miss you guys,"  I told Stefan.

"We feel the same way about you, " he said.

After they left on Tuesday I had just two more nights to wrap up my affairs in Chiangmai--not that I had a lot on my plate, but there was some shopping to do, some food to eat, some TV to watch, and some visiting with Pik.

I also picked up a new friend, Yuriy from Perm, Russia, who is on his first trip to Thailand and this is only his second trip outside of Russia.

He's an IT guy ("I hate it!") who sold all his belongings in Moscow with the intention of "looking for myself" in Thailand.

I remarked that Thailand can be a good place to do that.  "Or it can be a very bad place to do it if you're not careful."  This observation cracked him up.

Yuriy wants to try to make a go of it in Chiangmai, maybe sign up for Thai courses so he can get a year-long student visa.

He seems like a decent guy, and he's a music fan, so I took him to Tiger Kingdom and introduced him to A and Sakhorn.  Yuriry is very impressed with the bands, and especially with the excellent women singers.

I also helped him to find a "hong phak", a room for rent by the month.  Within a day we got him set up with something suitable for 2500 baht monthly on a three month minimum lease.

Pik and I had a final dinner together on Wednesday night, then I met her and Yuriy again Thursday morning before I flew back to Bangkok that afternoon.

Of course Pik wants me to move back to Thailand.  "We can help you get situated again," she says.  She says this every time she sees me.

We've been talking about how to help Peppo get a tourist visa for the U.S., and on Wednesday I went to a specialty travel agency that handles most visa situations for Thais and farang.  The travel agent was very helpful with the info, and I wrote it all down and gave Pik a copy so we can begin strategizing.

Pik and I hope that maybe we can sponsor Peppo for a U.S. visit in 2015.

It's sort of sad to be leaving, but I also feel it's about time to get out of Chiangmai--I was getting way too comfortable there.

By late Thursday I was checked into the S1 Hostel on Soi Ngam Dupli off Bangkok's busy Rama 4 Road.  The S1 Hostel is a nicely renovated hotel which used to be my regular first stop in Bangkok back when it was called "Honey House".

I was happy with the renovations and with the fact that the price--at 700 baht for an aircon room with bathroom, fridge, and TV--is only 100 baht more than it was in 2007.  This is really a bargain for only $22.  Does anyone really wonder why I love Thailand?

I've said goodbye to old friends in Chiangmai, but now I'm saying hello to old friends--from the States--in Bangkok.

Sharon is a friend from the old-time music scene in America.  As an ethno-musicologist and professor in the field, she has studied--among other things--the contest scene at the National Old-Time Fiddlers Contest in Weiser, ID that I attended each year from 2002 to 2005.  This is where we first met, and I still have a copy of her dissertation on the subject.

But what a small world it is!  She's also done some extensive study of Thai classical and folk music, and she knows a lot more than I ever will about the instruments they play in Thailand and in other musically influential Asian countries such as China.  Indeed, one of her mentors is an expert on Thai music, and he keeps his second home here.

In the most serendipitous manner possible, Sharon's husband Michael--an engineer of state of the art packing machinery--was offered a two-year contract with  Bangkok company, and Sharon's summer visit to him coincided with my own trip to Thailand.

We've agreed to meet at the McDonald's at Rama 4 and Silom to do some tourist stuff and maybe take in a museum.

After all, she and I both are supposedly on vacation--even if work from home seems to intrude upon us in that way that it seems to do . . .