I knew that Thailand was "the land of the smiles," but it really hits you when you finally meet that person that never stops smiling. I took a cooking class with some friends last weekend, and our instructor was just an exquisite individual. She had us laughing from the moment we arrived until the moment we hugged her goodbye. I think she told us she was in her sixties, but her energy level was so much higher than mine. Her name was Tik.
Tik is such a little chatterbox, with nearly perfect English and an incredibly fascinating life. She's lived in Thailand all her life and worked a variety of jobs in Bangkok ranging from the government work to administrative work in an English charter school. She ran that business herself, determined to learn English. She studied English for ten years and offered to donate all of her resources to the Mirror Foundation, for which I've been working. She is an incredibly generous, kind-hearted woman who never skips a beat. Tik moved to Chiang Rai to follow love. She lives with her boyfriend, Martin, an English teacher from the UK. We never met Martin, but they must be such a cute couple. She refers to him as "Mr. Martin," and they combined their names on the mailbox so that it reads "Martik." They've been together for four years, so we asked her why they weren't married. Marriage is so traditional, and Thai people are traditional, so it seemed like a valid question to ask. I'm pretty sure Tik is a feminist. She talked about how she never felt as if she needed a marriage certificate to validate her feelings or actions. Then she talked to us about how little the majority of Thai men appreciated their wives and how she had always been determined to avoid that fate. I don't think I've ever gotten to know someone so quickly as I got to know Tik.
The thing that I loved the most about her was the honesty in her reactions and responses to the things we said. The moment she learned I was a vegetarian, she screamed a little bit in disappointment. She was such an eccentric woman, always screaming when she was either really happy/satisfied or really shocked. After she got over her initial disappointment in my dietary choices, she took us to this huge food market in Chiang Rai to buy the cooking supplies we'd need. She made sure to buy tofu for me, but that wasn't until after walking us through the meat section of the market. It's commendable that Thai people use every part of the animal, but I really wasn't up for seeing the congealed chicken blood after a night out drinking. If Tik thought that would change my mind about being a vegetarian, then she didn't think that one through. The market was incredibly diverse though. There were fruits on one end, rice at another, meat in the center, clothes over here and vegetables right next to them. Anything that we hadn't tried, Tik bought for us. She wanted to show us the best possible perspective of Thailand. And we got it.
It was quite a long drive from the market to her house, but there were so many beautiful sights along the way. I don't think I'll ever tire of seeing the mountains in Northern Thailand. Her house was beautiful, built just for her and Martin. We prepared butter-sauteed mushrooms, fried cashew chicken, massaman curry, and of course pad Thai. We hadn't eaten more than toast that morning, so once we were finished we ate nearly everything. After eating, Tik insisted that we shower. That was probably the strangest request of the day. We all politely declined, but she kept insisting!!! It was really very funny. She wanted us to shower and use her cooling powder. I'd never heard of cooling powder before this trip, but it has definitely become my best friend over the past 3 weeks. There's no better feeling than staying cold after an ice cold shower in Thailand. So the point is, we used some of that, then she had a whole other list of things for us to do in the afternoon. I hadn't realized we were getting a mini tour when we'd signed up for a cooking class.
The next thing on Tik's list was for us to send off a Chinese lantern, in the daytime, for good luck. The thing about Chinese lanterns is that you have to do it without any wind. So we tried to find a wind-less spot, but the lantern caught on fire and disintegrated to the ground as the 5 of us were screaming, thinking that we'd begun burning her house down. We had to get the hose out to stop it! I kind of felt that this wasn't the best omen... so I changed my wish the second time around. Even the second lantern didn't fly straight though; one of my friends dropped the lighter right through the rice paper. We still sent off our wishes just the same. Maybe these will come true, but just to solidify our good luck, Tik insisted we go to the river to feed thousands of fish, for good karma. So much of what I've done in Thailand has been centered around good karma, good luck, and long life. If I wasn't destined for all of that before coming here, I sure as hell am now. Feeding the fish was, yet again, quite a unique experience. Tik insisted we put our feet in the river and then throw the food in. They went wild when we tossed the food in though! There were fish jumping all over my feet, splashing water everywhere! It was still such a crazy experience. It's also really scary just taking that leap of faith that the fish won't try biting you!
After feeding the fish, Tik took us to the Singha tea plantation. It was so massive, and the smell was incredible, just like the tea plantation I'd visited last week. We took so many beautiful pictures and got to taste the oolong tea. It was all so delicious. By the time Tik dropped us back off at the hotel, we had been with her for over seven hours. I'm not sure if it was her genuine hospitality or her desire for companionship that kept us with her so long, but I know she'll be one of the pieces of Thailand I keep with me. This trip has made me realize that I'm entirely too serious about the silliest of things. When our lantern of wishes burned down, we turned around and got a new one. Even that one wasn't perfect, but it soared away. This is what I'll take away from my short-lived time with Tik: you can always try again.
