Chiang Mai is a mountain town about 12 hours drive due north of Bangkok. It is a town not much different than a hill town in many countries. I am spending New Year’s here. There are n mountains here or even hills. I was tad disappointed to know that as we drove in. After all, for me, mountains start off at 5000 feet at their lowest and then ascend vertically and one may then camp at 10000 feet. The adventurous of us have gone further up. V traveled up to 16ooo near Everest Base amp and me Dad did upto 15000 feet well onto his 70’s. This is the majesty of the Himalayas. Once you see the “big” one in anything, it is hard to accept a small one of anything. Coffee. nce you have that mind blowing Vietnamese decoction or the Seattle brown sludge. Can you ever have an American Joe? Ha No. Same for Chiang Mai. But, the town, I find, is lovely and charming. Like a cool New England college town. Understated enough with its own pull. will explore and write more
Mountain or a Molehill?
January 3, 2008 at 10:06 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Chiang Mai, Mountains, Thailand, Travel
The Politics of War, or how to enter History books
January 3, 2008 at 9:50 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Asia, Combodia, Genocide, India, Politics, South Asia, War
We have all heard about the Jewish angst and destruction during WW II. We have heard about the Armenian Genocide or the lack of it as the Turks would have it. we have all heard about the Iraq wars. We never hear about the millions more who dies in the largest migrations, killings and displacement of people in History – the Partition of the Indian sub continent. We never hear about the millions killed and “disappeared” in erstwhile Khmer Rouge, we never hear about the Sudans until too late. The Politics of war is the politics of forgetting and tolerance of intolerance. We fail every day as humans. Why?
