[Traveler’s Exchange Letter‧Chiang Mai Part 3] Connection, home and other places, daily life

Good words:

So happy to read your new travel notes/replies! I re-read your article again at the Social Affairs Office and typed the place name you mentioned into Google Maps. When I first typed in Dakshina Chitra Heritage Museum, it immediately jumped out to the street location. I had to zoom out with the mouse wheel and zoom out again. , locate where Chennai is on the continent, and then pull it to another city you mentioned, a continent I have never known about. In this process of zooming out and getting closer, the land masses and country names of South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East became clear. On the one hand, I felt longing for the unknown, but on the other hand, I thought about it, but it was difficult to really imagine the smoke of gunfire burning in the distance. It’s one of those rare moments these days.

I have always liked your writing, or the words you poured out after thinking about the life process, from the first time we had dinner together, to the thoughts you wrote in our chat room after the end of Mr. W’s special species course, and Last time we had dinner, I asked you why you chose this new job. Your answers were always filled with deep reflections and coherence with the life events you have experienced. I also yearn for the qualities you show when you experience, watch, and write. , I always feel that there is an introverted, profound and repetitive power of progress - and, in my opinion, you are always willing to throw yourself in, test the world, and are not afraid to become - I mean for example That’s how I feel when you describe your current job.

In comparison, I always seem to be limited and broken everywhere. My experiences from college to the present, including mountain climbing, species viewing, tree climbing, rock climbing, and farmland, have all escaped my life to varying degrees. Therefore, when I write, when I When I miss it, what I write about is a world that has long since left me—so it is usually full of nostalgia. This may also be the way you say that my writing is "I am here, but my thoughts drift to distant places", because my writing is not to become a traveler, farmer, mountain climber or tree climber, those who I I long for the identity and figure, but maybe I just want to remember and rebuild the broken and multiple worlds I once lived in. At the same time, I often have very contradictory feelings about writing. On the one hand, I certainly long for writing itself. It is not for a great writing project, but just typing on the keyboard in odd hours like this makes me satisfied. On the other hand, I I am always very afraid that my writing will override my life experience or the world I have experienced, and because of the charm of words, I will be too sentimental, look at the world too lyrically and sentimentally, and mold myself in reverse. .

On the contrary, what I see and write in you covers the nature that I yearn for to a certain extent - and points to writing and life patterns, as well as the connection between them.

Having digressed, maybe it’s time to return to the originally planned narrative. On the third day in Chiang Mai, Chi and I’s travel route “went astray” (it looked really scary, but it wasn’t). The pace of the third day was very It's similar to the city wandering I'm familiar with in Taiwan.

I'm also thinking about how to respond to the changes, adaptations, and rules you mentioned?

Cross paths and separate explorations

The experience on Ningman Road made me ask before going out on the third day if I wanted to be alone and walk separately today. Because if we walked separately on Ningman Road, we could stop and go at any time according to our own physical strength and interests, enter or not enter the store, or simply abandon this road, but we were used to talking to each other when making the next decision. We discussed each other's opinions, but instead accommodated each other, and it was difficult to give up the choice that we were actually beginning to tire of. In the end, we could only hope that maybe there would be a turnaround in the next lane of Ningman Road (but of course it didn't). This is not a bad thing, it means that we are quite considerate traveling companions.

At the same time, on this journey, I also hope to test whether I can go on a journey alone, and be curious about where our desires will take us if we each follow our own hearts. After returning to the hotel in the evening, you can also share with each other. What kind of Chiang Mai did you see?

moving path

Where will I go? I'm curious.

I want to connect and recreate the third day in Chiang Mai one by one. These decisions, either out of necessity or accidental, weaved the path of the third day, and also allowed me to re-examine how the day unfolded at the end of the day, knowing that this day, being here (here) and being in There, there is not much difference between my hometown and that place. They are all made up of a series of decisions based on daily life (needs), with an eye for exploration and novelty in the process.

bookstore

Not far from the money exchange place, I quickly passed by the first bookstore. Most of the stores relied on the natural light reflected in the windows, and most of the English books were placed in sections. I recognized that the first section of the introductory section discusses academic works related to Chiang Mai, such as digital nomadism in Chiang Mai, the second section is historical-related, such as the Lanna Kingdom, and then there is a section that discusses labor, ecology, etc., and then beyond the first section, it is Discuss the situation of non-Thai speaking people/Muslims etc.

The aisles of the bookstore are narrow and the fluorescent lamps are helpless and weak. The owner is quietly doing his own thing, but I stand or squat with relish and slowly read the abstract on the back of the book. I looked through the introduction at the back and typed some book titles into my notepad.

Enchanted Land

Ghost of the New City

A Brief History of Lanna

The Bare Life of Thai Migrants Workmen in Singapore

Thai Forestry

The Thai Food Complex

Thailand Hidden Workforce

Agriculture and Ethnobotanist of the Mekong Basin

Ethnic Groups of Thailand Non-Thai Speaking People

...

Finally, I chose a travelogue about folk plants along the Mekong River and an ethnography of Muslims in southern Thailand. At that time, I was curious and fearful about the itinerary in southern Thailand, and questioned where I could explore. I asked softly. Can the store owner pay by credit card.

Stationery store

I walked out of the bookstore satisfied, and then continued riding along the Google Navigation route until I found a stationery store (which I thought sold pens and notebooks) through photos, reviews and ratings on the map. The diary I usually used before setting off from Taiwan was almost full, and I had no time to buy it, so I had to put it on my "arrival to-do list". This store didn't have the perfect-bound, small, lined notebooks that I was used to, so I bought thin and large notebooks that were similar to workbooks. It is very spacious, and the layout is similar to a stationery paradise that has been open for a long time and was common in Taiwan in the past: it means fluorescent lamps and product display racks, it means rows of pens and notebooks displayed, and it means that I have been curious about stationery since childhood. The layers of time are gradually peeling off, and the appearance of being gradually abandoned by the times but still standing.

camera store

The scene outside the stationery store made me very nostalgic for the moment I pressed the shutter. I checked the reviews and ratings to choose a nearby camera store. I tried to communicate with the store clerk in English, but later found that using Google Translate to "talk in writing" would be a better and faster option. I told the store clerk that I had no experience using film machines, but wanted to buy a film camera. The store clerk recommended the Polaroid camera on my shelf. I told the store clerk that I should think about it again, and searched one by one and compared the reviews of the cameras on the shelf.

My budget was 2,000 baht. Just when I selected one of the models, the store clerk turned to sell me another camera. He told me it was her second-hand camera and that the image was brighter than the one I picked out. The store manager came over and taught me how to load the film. I asked and bought a lens cap that was not included in the camera.

If I were to continue describing it, I would say it was a market, a home appliance store, a small bar like a local grocery store, and I encountered my first conversation.

sense of security

We left each other in a foreign country and discussed how to deal with several emergencies before going out: For example, what to do if a mobile phone is missing, we should immediately borrow a mobile phone from a passerby or store, and find a way to contact our parents or friends (and then use them to communicate together) Notify another travel companion in the safety report group) and immediately return to the accommodation to meet up. Anticipating how to deal with several emergencies, and at least having some confidence in our minds, we went out to exchange money together (note down the exchange rates at the money exchange offices we passed along the way), and have lunch (from that day on, our scheduled schedule for the rest of the journey - three bites of Thai food, Being so hot that I couldn’t help it, I took a sip of Thai milk) and started our journeys individually.

Since going to the movies the day before, we each bought a bicycle near our accommodation and gradually became familiar with the local transportation. To us, this place is like a city that needs to be explored.

gaze and shutter

After checking out at the stationery store, I was leaning outside the store and came across this scene, which made me go to the camera store and buy the clerk’s second-hand camera. Please let me describe it directly in the words I wrote on 9/3:

The moment I really missed clicking the shutter was when I came out of the stationery store and rested on the bench outside the stationery store because of the hot weather. At this time, a dog came beside me and nestled in the crevice lower than me. Not long after, a food truck vendor selling snacks on the corner of the street happened to be at the end of my line of sight. He took some food scraps and feed to feed the dogs. The process of feeding the dog is full of music and ritual: he does not put the dog food directly in front of the dog, but taps the bench beside him with his knuckles. When the dog hears the crisp sound, it will jump on it as if it I started eating on a dining table-like bench. At this time, while the dog was eating, the vendor put his head against the dog to show his love and intimacy. Later, the female clerk who helped me check out at the stationery store also came over. Small talk, petting the dog.

If we were in Taiwan, in a context where it was easy to start a conversation and understand other people's conversations, I might not pay so much attention. However, in a strange place, especially Chi and I, we really wanted to get close and understand life from before departure to arrival. This kind of interaction is cross-contextual, personal, and intimate; in addition, a similar scene also happened on the first day. It was late at night when Chi and I arrived. We went out hungry and found a hotel near our accommodation. A porridge shop. There are mainly female clerks outside the porridge shop, and there are only a few tourists dining. After they received our order, they spent the rest of the time on their tablets and using their mobile phones to pass the time. There was not much interaction, until a wandering When the cat walked in, the female shop assistants rushed to take pictures, pet it, and feed it, breaking the original sense of "standby" for work/labor.

Therefore, under the corridor, with the traffic and pedestrians outside, I had close contact with the intimate world of people and stray dogs, and the loose relationship formed by people taking care of the dog. This is what I saw in the corridor. The scene I wanted to capture for the first time during the trip: a contrast between the normal functioning of the world outside the corridor and the intimate relationship between people and animals below. Afterwards, I went to a camera store and bought a film camera for 2,000 baht.

This photography theme can also be simply summed up as wanting to capture the "gaps between cities". After I bought the camera, there happened to be a dusk market nearby. I went to the dusk market to wander around and drink sweet soup and took the photo with the camera. The first photo shows a female vendor placing her young child on a tile table displaying farm products in the market. She occasionally turns her head to take care of the child crawling behind her beside the cardboard box.

24/4/16 Supplement: This draft has been sitting idle "unfinished" until now, but I wanted to at least send it out first.

Lian

11/29-12/7