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The longest day of the year. Summer solstice. Winter solstice. The shortest day of the year. Jerry’s birthday. Dwana and Foley’s anniversary. I made sure I used every part of this day. While Dwana was meditating, Viena, Ezra and I loaded up some water, cashews, and doggie treats and headed up to the Yoga Sala and grabbed Dwana before Yoga to go on a walk to feed the wild dogs of the jungle. Yes, we succeeded in befriending the wild pack of dogs with doggie treats. Once we received our gold medal commendation in canine capitulation, we hiked up the dirt road into the awaiting wilderness. This would be Dwana’s first wild hike of Thailand. We continued up the dirt trail until we reached a plateau on the ridge. No view was to be seen in this jungle – maybe if we were monkeys. We sat atop this summit of sorts and had M&M’s and cashews. And here I must tell a bit of the now and a bit of the future of the day. On the way down, Ezra kept making blockades with his hands across the trail and making demands of a password like children will do at times. PASSWORD. And then I would say something like “abracadabra!” and then he would say “Beethoven!” and then I would say “Beethoven!” and then he would open the “gate” and let me through. He kept doing this, and I kept saying “Beethoven” for the password, and I kept repeating “Beethoven” with a special joy in my heart that my 4-year-old son has chosen arguably the most famous musician/composer in history. Finally, all those Einstein Genius toys were paying off. And then reality struck when he said more clearly after I repeated “Beethoven” … he said “Gate Open!” and went running down the trail to set up the next GATE that I would need to OPEN. There is still hope right, just as I hope Mylon’s next attempt at college entrance exams will go up 10 points because he looked up the word – capitulate. There is still hope, right. Did I mention this is the longest day? and so this will be the longest journal entry. So for those out there who are used to twitter feeds, close this window right now. I am just starting. Fast forward five hours. I am in the back of a yellow painted pickup truck, scratch that – I am hanging onto the ladder bolted onto the camper-shell of a pickup truck. Why? Because, I thought to myself, “What would Mylon do if he were here?” So, I gave up my “comfortable” bench seat inside the bed of the yellow pickup truck to a older thai woman, and stood on the makeshift tailgate, hanging onto the makeshift ladder and makeshift rack on top, which I was quite jealous of because the rack was bigger than the rack on our now not-ours travel van. I did examine the bolt attachments, but after witnessing something that would happen 5 hours later, I realize now that rack and ladder and tailgate were not going anywhere. So, I am standing on a tailgate, holding on to the rack/ladder while the yellow pickup (songthaew) travels into Chiang Mai. I am thinking … this is pretty crazy, and then I see a guy who reminds me of young Timothy Dillon – the only guy I know that deals with electricity for a living. Who knows, it could have been Tim. I could not tell because he was all dressed in camouflage – even had a camouflage hat that zipped up so you could only see the eye holes. This guy was 25 feet in the air. This guy was 25 feet in the air standing on a ladder – not your regular ladder that has feet support every 12-16 inches. He was on a bamboo ladder with supports at least 2 feet apart. He dropped a screwdriver from 25 feet up and then he motioned to the ground guy to throw him up another which he caught no problem. The other guy was not supporting the ladder. The ladder was just leaning on the rats nest of electrical wire around the top of the pole. Must have been over 100 different electrical connections. Then his guy starts trying to bunny hop this ladder to where he needs to be. You know what happens next. Nothing. He was successful. No problem. I had it easy standing on the back on yellow pickup truck. The elderly woman whom I gave up my “comfortable” seat was also hauling a 50 pound bag of rice. When she exited the pickup at her stop, I helped her out by lifting her 50 pound bag of rice out of the truck. But this was not my stop, so I hopped back onto the truck. A long time will pass before I will be able to forget the image while now seated inside the bed of a yellow pickup driving away, … the image of this elderly woman dragging her 50 pound bag of rice along side of the busy highway of cars and shops and electrical power lines overhead separating the white clouds and the blue sky. She became smaller and smaller as we drove away, but her 50 pound bag was still 50 pounds. And did I tell you about the domestic violence that we witnessed first hand this morning. Hopefully Viena and Ezra will soon forget. Someone must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed. We were all at the Yoga Sala waiting for Dwana when I here this screech of a song, a struggle of sorts and then a “plump”. I look down at me feet and I see a gecko. This gecko literally dropped out of the sky, and was quite shocked from the fall because he did not move for a moment and I say “he” but I am not sure. Once the Gecko came to senses he scurried off under some planks of wood. I then hear this laughing and look at the roof and see another Gecko observing all this and then “she”quickly darts back into a small domiciled hole. I am pretty sure I heard continued laughing. The longest day is just beginning. We came home from our anniversary hike and had an anniversary lunch at the Restaurant. Yummy lentil soup for me. After lunch, I ran into my next dental appointment. I am determined not to use taxis. Songthaews are the way to travel. Songthaew are the way to travel when the sun is out, and on the longest day of the year, the sun is out for a while, but for be the sun was not out long enough, because when I finished with my dental appointment I could not find a yellow songthaew to take me the 20km back home. Which leads me to my last image of the day and how I can be sure that the rack was structurally sound. I was frantically running around searching for maybe the last yellow songthaew heading North to Mae Rim. I asked someone at the deserted bus station and they pointed in the direction of a “white” pickup truck with a shell and a rack – a songthaew. My ticket home. When I ran up to the white pickup I noticed the back was already full and the driver asked me where I was going, and I told him Mae Rim and he kinda mentioned that he was going that way. This was all do in Thai, so I really do not know what he actually said, but he was on the road heading in the right direction. But the back of his pickup was full and there were about 10 guys waiting, so I thought I would just wait with them for the next songthaew, for surely there would be another is all these others were waiting. While I was waiting, I had time to reflect on the culture of the Thai people and how we have really seen nice acts of kindness performed daily, and hear while I waiting was another example. I noticed all those inside the bed of the pickup were girls and all the others waiting with me were young boys, and I thought, how nice of the boys to let the girls have this songthaew ride while they wait to catch the next songthaew. And then I was awaken when the driver made a motion and all 10-12 of the boys jumped onto the back of the pickup and found some way to hang onto the ladder. 2 of them even rode on top of the rack. These 2 were especailly looking at me waiting for my move. But I could not. I would not. I did not. The loaded and white songthaew drove off without me. There goes my ride. After another hour of searching for a ride back to Mae Rim, I finally found a tuk-tuk driver sleeping outside a supermarket. I arrived home around 10:00pm. Way past dark. Another dental day done. 20 Baht to go to town. 500 Baht to return. Truth be told, 500 baht is a small price to pay and much better than riding atop a white songthaew. Walking around at night was much different that walking around during the day. The protection of the Temples had disappeared. Nothing was glittering. Direct light came from open air restaurants, street vendors, and the headlights of cars. For whatever reason, I could not hail a taxi. I could not even find a taxi. I had to walk back almost all the way to the walled portion of the city. The tuk-Tuk ride home was magical. I felt safe and knew I would soon be home. The moon was bright and was showing the shadowy contours of the mountain ridges, in only a way that a strong moon can do. A fresh breeze let me know at this moment – this is where I was supposed to be. I arrived safe and sound at home. Today I did not visit any Temples, except my own version of the Temple of the Tooth. I discovered one more interesting phenomena today for those who have read to the end of this random summer solstice passage. I discovered that the way the gates of Old Chiang Mai were built, they were built with a celestial or solar – terra connection. You see, on each of the equinoxes – Autumnal and Vernal, when the sun set, the suns rays stream directly aligned with the West and East gates. Not too amazing, I am sure many ancient cities have been built this way. There is a 21st century twist though. Because of the tilt of the Earth, on the summer solstice when the Sun is more in the North, when the sun sets, the sun’s ray shine at an angle out of the East gate and lights up and lead people to … of all places … McDonalds. Indiana Jones and Ronald McDonald would be proud. And not to be out done, and not completely verified, but my prediction during the Winter Solstice, on the shortest day of the year when the sun is in the south, the rays on the sun shine at sunset at an angle out of the East gate and illuminates and leads people to … someone Google Maps and do a street view and tell me please. Send in your guess. Let’s be a little interactive. This is the longest day of the year. This is my anniversary and I do not want to forget the Neopolitano Ice Cream with Lime squeezed in between Chocolate and Vanilla that was enjoyed with Dwana when I finally arrived home.
A couple of buses and we arrived on the West Side.
We woke up and Dwana was not feeling good. She had already used a whole gaggle of tissues – 4 boxes yesterday. She mentioned that as soon as we left Kuala Kahan on the bus she must have caught something. Today she felt the same and asked for another gaggle of tissues and stayed inside all day. I left early in the morning with Ezra and Viena to explore and find some breakfast. We found some coconut rice and some eggs and we were happy. After breakfast, we went to the playground. Since the morning was still early, we were the only ones at the playground. Us and some scattered young guys swinging and hanging out in the circular swings. As if on cue, they all gathered and started walking towards us as we were playing. They asked as few questions in broken English, I started to feel slightly uncomfortable so I took the first opportunity to leave when I saw Ezra fall. I quickly went over and grabbed Ezra off the ground and motioned to Viena and we left for the other playground past the ferris wheel. Here we played tag. I am pretty sure the young boys were just curious asking questions, lots of people do this to try and practice their English. However, since their were around 10 of them and they asked questions about if English people are all rich, I decided – time to leave – as I casually mentioned, “oh no, only the English from London.” Poor chap who shows up from London I guess. Meanwhile in the afternoon, Ezra screamed alot from not having the Kindle Fire. Ezra actually screamed himself to sleep. The rains fell in the evening and Dwana and I watched a movie for the first time in months – Chasing Mavericks. 
oneworldtwokids 