Dancing Shrimp and Rice Whiskey

This past Sunday I actually got to relax a little bit and take some time on my own. The the whole idea of alone time is very contrary to Thai society. I am staying at No’s house in the extra room at his rental house. His family lives near Chiang Mai so most weekends he stays there, but Saturday night was the first night I was going to be alone. All of my friends were very worried that I might be scared of Thai ghosts and were doubtful that I could stay alone. The doubt was sufficient that No made Boi (my friend and one of the SAO staff members) come stay at the house. I told them not to worry about it and that I had lived on my own for the past seven years, but my persuasion obviously wasn’t very effective. Thailand has a very communal society and outside of the cities there are very few people who live on their own. It is actually a lot like Latin American society, you live with your family until you get married and whenever you do something you are always accompanied by another person. It is quite a sharp contrast with the extreme individualism in the States.

On Sunday I gave Elenor (the other volunteer in the town of my SAO) a call to see how things had been for her and to see if she wanted to hop on our bikes and do some exploring of the town. We met up to have some lunch and then went to the market to search for a few needed items. At the market I experienced my first Song Kran soaking. Song Kran is a Thai festival that is coming up that is basically a giant drinking fest and water fight. Apparently people just hang out, drink, and douse every unsuspecting person with water. It was suggested that during that week we wear no good clothes and make sure to leave our cell phone home or keep it in a plastic bag. It doesn’t officially start until April 12, but here in my town they like to get things started early. A girl in the market saw the big tall farang as an irresistible target and got me pretty good with her squirt gun. Unfortunately for her I was looking at squirt guns that her father was selling and he got the gun from her in order to demonstrate it for me. Before he got finished with it I had convinced him to let me try it out. His daughter was then sprayed, by me, repeatedly with her own gun! It was pretty funny. The second time, I was riding my bike home on Monday and was thoroughly doused by some kids. Today I had to keep a constant look out for wet spots on the streets because I knew that there would be kids lurking in the shadow just itching to get the farang, but all my caution didn’t work and one boy jumped out of the bushes and tail end of his splash got me directly in the chest.

The rest of the day was spent riding around and exploring. Elenor had been brought to a resort that sold Western food so we decided to bike up there so I could check it out and have something to drink. The owner is a Finish man and his Thai wife with his adopted daughter who really is running the place. She speaks perfect English and showed us around the place. I got the OK to go swimming there as long as we ate something while we were there. I think that is on my agenda tomorrow given that it is a holiday and it has been getting progressively hotter as the hot season has stretched on. Sunday night I met up with the guys from the SAO to celebrate one of their birthdays. It was a great time eating drinking and talking in both Thai and English. It is great to have those guys around because they speak a little English and are very eager to help me with my Thai as well as get a little help with their English. In Thailand, when you are at any social gathering your glass will never, ever, ever be empty. No matter what you are drinking, as soon as it gets less than half full someone will be filling it up. This turned out to make things a little out of control for this little birthday party get together. The conversation continued and the food and beer did too. Eighteen liter bottles of beer later I will just say I was not sober. I rode my bike home, which luckily was not very far, but I’m sure that the line I rode was about as straight as the mountain roads going to my village. It was a fun experience.

Monday morning I went to work and was luckily saved by No when he let me know that that afternoon we would be leaving for my village once again. The idea of not having to suffer through a hung over day of sitting at the SAO elated me. Of course going to my village involved a night layover in Chiang Mai city because it is too far to drive all the way to the village in one afternoon. The most interesting part of my Chiang Mai excursion was our dinner that night. No let me know that we would be eating “gon den” or “dancing shrimp.” We all got a kick out of the name, but I wasn’t quite sure what dancing shrimp consisted of. I figured that anything with shrimp in it would be pretty tasty and I didn’t have to worry. For once I was right. When the order was brought to our table is consisted of a whole fish deep fried, a plate of bamboo meal worms, the famous “pat gra-pow,” and of course the dancing shrimp. The dancing shrimp were in a small bowl with a lid on it. Boi and Chet were pretty anxious to show me the meal and opened up the bowl just enough to peek in. They then proceeded to shake the bowl and open it with exclamations of “goon den!” They stuck a spoon in and little live shrimp about an inch and a half long came jumping out. They were jumping off the table, into our laps, and into the other food. I was laughing so hard that I forgot we were supposed to be eating them. They quickly replaced the lid and then it was a game to eat the dancing shrimp before they could dance away. If I could have only had a movie of it! It will be obligatory for anyone who comes to visit me to eat “dancing shrimp!” I guess I should mention that I ate the bamboo meal worms, which basically tasted like French fries. On the way to my village they also picked up several bags of insects and I tried some kind of larva. It actually had a taste that wasn’t horrible, but I sure wasn’t going to eat them like popcorn as were doing the rest of my Thai friends.

I found out off handedly that the purpose of our trip to the village was to bring an engineer to check out some of the construction projects that were going on the some of the villages. We first went and saw a well and a pump that had been constructed in order to provide water for a few houses in the proximity of where I will be living. We then took off to the one Lisu village that is in the Sub-district. There was a festival going on and everyone in the community had gathered in a family compound and were cooking mass amounts of food and of course drinking a fair bit of alcohol. We were quickly sat down in the house where all the men resided while the women continued cooking and eating outside. Most of the villagers were chewing a sort of nut which when combined with a type of mud and a leaf produced a bright red paste that was eaten. Well this past also made their mouth and teeth a deep red. It reminded me of the Quechua in Peru and Bolivia who chewed the coca leaves in the same manner and had mouths and teeth that were stained green. The similarities between the indigenous areas of Latin America and my new home in Thailand are pretty astounding.

Not long after sitting down we were handed blue plastic coffee mugs that were promptly filled with their local alcoholic specialty, rice whiskey. Now I have had some strong alcohol in my day, but this concoction would take the paint off a car. In most similar situations it has been said that as long as you don’t drink the whole thing then the host will most likely not fill it up and will be content with you sitting there holding the drink. Well this was not true in our little outing. Ever four or five minutes one of the men would go around cheers-ing the table. I tried to take little sips, but it was useless. One good thing was that the alcohol was good at covering up the taste of the slab of pig liver that was cut directly off the whole liver sitting in the middle of the table. I have seen Thais, in particular the SAO staff, eat some pretty funky stuff, but it was soon apparent that pig liver wasn’t included in that extensive menu of tastes. A couple choked it down and everyone at least made an effort to take one bite. We thought we were saved when one of the men set up another table as the food started to arrive. Five of us moved down there with two of the Lisu men. As soon as we sat down the remaining pieces of liver were set on the table in a discreet manner.

It was still only about 11:00 am and most of us were not all that hungry, but we ate nevertheless. One other thing that attracted little interest from the group was the raw minced pork mixed with spices. It is quite a tasty creation when cooked and is called “lap muu,” but the combination of being raw and that most meat hangs out in 100 degree temperature with no lack of flies to land on it made it a little unappealing to me. I ate the other items which were quite tasty and was the first to start to get low on rice. I really didn’t want any more rice, but as soon as the Lisu elder saw that I was getting low he offered me more. I tried to decline, but he was very insistent that I ate more and basically grunted and gestured for me to hand him my bowl. I figured that since I was a farang and had limited language skills that to accept the rice and eat it would be the best thing to do. I figured that my Thai friends would be more successful in avoiding having to eat more, but once again I was wrong (this is becoming a reoccurring theme). It was one of the funniest things I have seen. The village elder went around to each person and asked them if they would like more. Each person tried their best to decline more rice, but the grunts and the hand gestures got the best of them. By the time he got around to Boi who was sitting right next to me I was almost crying from laughing. I tried to hold it back, but I just couldn’t. The whole experience just was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Mostly because of the reactions of the Thais whom I expected to be accustomed to these situations but were clearly disheveled. This highlights the fact that they were really as much a foreigner in this hill tribe village as I was. Not by physical appearance, but certainly by culture!

After eating we headed out to some more of the projects which consisted of a pretty significant water project in one of the communities. We went and inspected several water tanks that were being constructed and then headed to a dam that was being built up the in forest. The forest was amazing and was basically an upland rainforest. We hiked along a narrow path running high on the hillside above a small stream. We arrived at the construction site which consisted of about six men collecting various size rocks to distribute at the base of a slowly developing dam. They had already poured a small cement wall and were shoring up the bottom with the rocks. The dam was in a very small canyon that filled with large tropical trees. The damn would be no more than six feet tall, but would supply sufficient water to the storage tanks lower down in the community. When we got there we discovered that there was a small waterfall just a few hundred feet up the stream. It was pretty idyllic, but would soon be underwater after the dam was finished. We also found that the workers had caught a snapping turtle and it was just too irresistible of an opportunity to take photos with it. I heard one of my friends asking the workers if they would eat it. I didn’t really get the answer, but everything that moves is “gin dai” or edible to the Thais. The engineer checked out the progress and we were off to see another one of the water tanks.

Now when we arrived at the next site I could hear the laughter of children. I could see a large cement structure above some of the water tanks so it curiously crept towards it. As I inched up I saw that the local water supply had become a swimming pool for the local kids. I can’t think of anything more unsanitary, but it apparently didn’t bother the Thai adults that were hanging out at the house at the base. Hygiene is for the most part really good in Thailand, but it appears that there are certain things that you can disregard. I’ll just remember not to drink the water if I go to that village again!