Thailand Post #4

Email sent to A. from Thailand, November 27, 2006:

It is very hard to think the holidays are around the corner at home. No Christmas music here. It is also in the 90’s. We are greeted at each arrival back at the hotel with cold lemony cloths. Each time we get back on the bus we are given a bottle of cold water and an face and hand cloth. the hotels are super luxurious…old ones from the 1900’s that have been restored, staff falling all over us, terrific breakfasts with dim sum every morning and a huge asortment of fruit and French pastries, left from French occupation of Cambodia and Vietnam.

Going to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh city this afternoon. Took a boat ride on a large lake to visit a fishing village, alligator farm and more. A very National Geographic morning.

We are following the footsteps of Somerset Maugham as he traveled from Thailand to Burma, Cambodia and Vietnam. Lots to learn, questions. The arrangements are seamless.

Remember to check your auto insurance policy.

So excited that you are going to see the Roches.

See you next Wednesday early afternoon.

Heaps of love, my darling girl!

Thailand, post #3

An email sent to friends on November 21, 2006:

Today we are going off in three different groups to the hill country outside of Chaing Mai, staying over night in a camp..ha! Think fancy safari tents tucked in and around beautiful green hillsides. BD and I are in a group that includes a dugout canoe ride, elephant ride, visit to an orchid farm, market tour where I hope to see Hmong and Karens people,and a bicycle ride tomorrow. We will be back here for guaranteed internet and Thanksgiving dinner. Don’t feel sorry for us. We won’t even miss the cranberry sauce.

There is much to tell, say and wonder about. So many questions have formed in my mind.

The former ambassador’s wife is Chinese. She is given the menu for our dinner each day and adds, deletes, to make sure we get to taste everything and that the menu is not American-Chinese  food. They lived in Thailand, Burma and Indonesia with the State department.

I need to share the machine, no time to edit…Love to you all.

Thailand, post #2

An email sent to friends on November 21, 2006:

Back to the Burmese students. There were 19 students and we were to offer encouragement as they send off their early decision apps, answer questions about college life in the US, etc. My student, Mai, is applying to a school in North Carolina. When I get home I can heartily write a letter of support to the admissions office, as well as contact an old friend on the faculty. The parents of a student currently attending my alma mater were at a potluck the students hosted for us. Each student took us on a walking/taxi trip in Rangoon to a place we wouldn’t ordinarily see. Mai took me to the Mercury Tea House, which is described in the current book, finding George Orwell in Burma. What I didn’t know is that this is the one place is the city where artists, writers and poets gathered on Fridays, from 11:00-12: 00. One man gave me a book of poems he had translated into English and the group had self-published. One of the artists gave me a flyer about an art exhibit they hoped we could attend. The interpreter was an amazing young man, age 26. He later joined us at lunch, which the other professor had set up buffet style at a hotel, so we wouldn’t have servers listening in our conversations, and the students could speak freely. It reminded me of the visit Mary and I had in 1961 to some students’ home in Moscow.

I don’t know the man’s name, but he is both a sports writer and music writer and expressed his great frustration about the state of journalism in Burma. The government does not allow writers to write anything negative or interview athletes or musicians. Musicians are extremely tormented by limitations imposed by the government. I had a lot of opportunity to assess his strengths and talked to him about the Fulbright program. When I got to the embassy, I told several folks I thought this young man would be a perfect candidate. When I got back to Rangoon, several days later, I met an educational leader of some sort who had been at the tea house with us. He said he had heard of my recommendation about the Fulbright and would encourage the young man to apply for next year.

Thailand, post #1

An email sent to friends on November 21, 2006:

I’m sitting in an open air Thai pavilion, with beautiful teak furniture, bouquets and incredibly creative arrangements of flowers everywhere, surrounded by lush gardens at the Yaang Come Village Hotel.
There are magnificent cloth lanterns in white silk hanging from the trees, Thai spirit houses and various temple-type things on the grounds. There are also many handsome young people in traditional clothing, willing to help us at every turn.

We have been traveling a week now and all are in good spirits. The group of travelers (40 and 5 leaders) are simply wonderful. We range in age from about 38-76. All are cooperative, and generous of spirit. All are very well traveled. We have been to Bangkok for several days and then spent four nights in Burma: Rangoon, Mandalay and Bagan. We staying in the elegantly restored hotels made famous by writers (Somerset Maugham, George Orwell) over the years. It is such a treat. There are butlers hovering outside our doors, fresh fruit always and fresh flowers on the pillows, elegant and simple flower arrangements everywhere we go. The flowers in Thailand, especially, are magnificent.

The highlight has been meeting with Burmese students who are being educated in a clandestine educational program to prepare them for US colleges. The hope is that they will return to Burma, equipped to counteract the repressive and stupid regime. (For example, the government just moved the capitol way out in the boon docks, far from Yangon (Rangoon) and are ordering people to move there. They base it on auspicious numbers, dates, etc, but they haven’t built any buildings or housing. The embassies and consulates are refusing to move. In the meantime the Burmese government is selling the gov buildings in Rangoon to the Chinese, most likely to build the new buildings as well as line their own pockets.)

Any way, we have many lively discussions and briefings. One of the professors with us was an American Ambassador to Burma. He and his wife had a lot of fun visiting the home they had lived in when he was Ambassador. We also had a briefing with the US ambassador to Thailand at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, the day of our arrival. He was deep into preparation for the Current Occupant’s visit to Vietnam.