How Do You Say "Thank You" in Thai?

As the jet lag slowly lifts and we reintegrate (slowly) into life in Maine (everything I said about hating the heat was a lie)  I feel the need to close out this blog by paying tribute to the person who made the trip possible: Iris Gowen, longtime friend, mentor of the travel challenged, citizen of the globe, and the "Naga Travel" of this account. First I offer two stories that illustrate how she made this experience so rich, so much fun and, in the most basic of ways, possible.

 

As we were planning our trip to Thailand with her  last if we wanted to stay longer, we would have to leave the country and come back in to reset the one month clock.  (Travel agencies  offer lots of "visa trips" to nearby countries for travelers. We decided to add a trip to Cambodia to serve that same purpose since Iris said we had  to see Ankor Wat,  anyway)

Then in the kind of incompetence that makes Iris grit her teeth, we promptly forgot all about this key part of the mechanics of traveling there , probably because we were  so busy deciding if our choice of outfits made us look fat, old, or both. With nothing in between, it's in one ear and out the other.

Luckily, Naga Travel, as yet unknown to us, was already guiding these innocents in their journey abroad, much in the same way the Gods on Olympus pushed the mortals below them around. 

Shortly before we left an email comes with monkey-simple directions for getting through customs, finding our luggage and meeting Iris at the meeting point in Bangkok airport when we arrive.  Attached to it was a document from "Naga Travel" describing our overall itinerary including a week in Siem Reap, Cambodia. "You'll need this document to check-in in Boston,"  she warns.  Although  we had never heard of this agency, we do what we are told, print out the document, and shove it into the folder. One good thing about being obedient is that it allows for a heightened level of stupidity.

Sure enough , as Kate chats up the airline employee at check-in with cheery talk about our exciting vacation, the women frowns.She's spotted a problem with the dates on our return flights. "I'll need some proof  that you will be exiting and returning to Thailand during your stay."

After an awkward pause and some fumbling, Kate asks. " 'Will this do?" She has found  the Naga Travel" form (a miracle!)  and passes it over the counter.  Knitting her officious little brow, our defender of international borders makes a decision in our favor.

"If you didn't have this, I couldn't let you on the plane" she tsk-tsks. We sigh with relief as she stamps and staples a bunch of paperwork that allows us to proceed to security, find the gate, go through the second round of security and maybe then enter the plane with all our clothing, both shoes, and carry-ons intact.

Much later, Kate relates this tale to Iris who chuckles and blithely confesses that there is no "Naga Travel." She had typed up the false document to get us thought check-in. "Didn't you notice the address on the form was mine?"

I share this tale of international skullduggery and intrigue to illustrate both her brilliance and cunning. This story describes just one of the hundred ways she used her incredible understanding of how to get around in difficult places to make our trip possible. Without her help we would literally have not gotten this off the ground.

However, Iris' s real genius for travel and her importance in making our trip so successful is best illustrated by an account of our last day in Bangkok. Given how tired we were from out "overnight" train trip, we were ready to flop down by her the pool for the day had not Iris different plans. To be honest, I didn't even know where she was leading us but there was obviously something we had to see.

Of course there was: the  show at the Bangkok Center for Art and Culture was probably the best thing we should have done to finish up our journey. This amazing building,similar to New York's Guggenheim but more elegant, offered an amazing variety of kinds of art work show, a huge exhibit of new works by Thai artists. The show demonstrates the way that these contemporary artists use  the history, culture, primitive art , religion, philosophy and the everyday stuff of Thai life in their works.   Every piece references something we learned, something we saw, something we experienced  on our trips around the country. All of us agreed that we began to understand the place at least a little and appreciate it a lot. We are sure Iris planned this epiphany--another example of her brilliance and cunning.

Because I can't take up more more of Iris's time --I'm sure she has other guests arriving--I will stop telling stories and just list  some of the other ways Iris, Madeleine, and David (and Bernard through his phone advice) have helped make this trip just a great experience:

1. They didn't complain when we we took over their house, ate up all their food, used their appliances and allowed their housekeeper to iron our t-shirts.( I did not, however,  use their toothbrushes.)

2. They fought like hell over every check.

3. They answered our constant stupid questions without rolling their eyes.

4. Picked us up at the airport at 12 midnight and saw us off at 2:00 in the morning.

5.  Welcomed us when we arrived from our night train at 6am.

6.  Took us to more fabulous restaurants than we knew existed.

7.  Showed us so many different sides of Bangkok-from the hippie world to the astonishing malls to the alleys of "Fellini does Thailand", to palaces and temples, to markets of all sizes and products, to turtle feeding and Sunday concerts,  to Nana, and, of course, to foot massages, body scrubs and facials...

During out last dinner at Sudasin Bangkok--our new favorite restaurant in the world, Sudos,  we all sat around discussing the virtues of Naga Travel and the skill of its owner (Iris) and associates (David, Bernard and Madeleine).   It was clear to us all that Naga Travel needed a slogan...after some discussion, we decided there was only one choice:

NAGA TRAVEL: " We know what's best."

Thank you Naga Travel, Iris, David, Madeleine and Bernard--you certainly knew what was best for us. 

KHAWP KHUN KOP/KA !!!!!!!!