A Peace Of Pai, And Then Chiang Mai, And Then Another Peace Of Pai!

We arrived in Pai on January 4 for our one month stay, and were happy to get back, and out of Chiang Mai. One way to explain Pai is to imagine being put into a time machine and being beamed back to 1970's Santa Cruz or Boulder, or maybe even Santa Fe. At least this is true right now, during the high season, when the streets are filled with 20-something backpackers, riding unfamiliar motorbikes, hanging out at any of the plethora of restaurants and cafes and open mike and art venues, looking, except for what would have more likely been much longer hair, like the rainbow hippies of yesteryear. It feels both refreshing and anachronistic. There's something both familiar and out of place about it. One wouldn't have to know they were in Thailand if one didn't want to pay too close attention to the native language. The music being played in the cafes is 70's American folk and folk rock, mostly by solo acoustic guitarist singers, some of them quite good. The vibe is peace and love and chai and health food, if you want that, or not if you don't. A lot of the clothing is the kind of flowing shapeless colorful fabric you'd have seen back in the day, when it isn't culturally insensitive short shorts or mini mini skirts or bare chests (men). Tatoos are unisexually abundant, unlike the 70's that I knew anyway.

I asked the Thai owner, Otto, of one of the favorite art cafe, open mike, spoken word haunts if there was any kirtan in Pai, and he smiled wanly uttering a drawn out and melodic Thai “no” quietly. When I went up to the counter to pay my bill, Otto asked me if I did kirtan, and I told him I played drums with a kirtan band in America. He offered that there used to be some kirtan, but not any more.

Almost immediately Nancy met our neighbor at the Pai Laguna Resort/Hotel, Kelly, a transitioning 40-something who has lived in Chiang Rai in northern Thailand for a year, and is supposed to be studying, online, to get certified as a Montessori teacher, which she will then do in Chiang Rai, or not. Transitioning because she doesn't really want to do this, but has signed a one year lease on an apartment, and isn't into the required studies, and probably will do it anyway because she doesn't yet have the inner fortitude to follow her heart. But that's not all. She spent two years at Rocky Mountain Dharma Center, in Colorado (where she's from) being neighbors with Nancy's nephew Adam, and spent a couple of hours driving Nancy's brother Bakes to the airport at one point, having what she says was a great conversation. Now who could have orchestrated this meeting? 

Then there's Yada, from Vermont, a 60-something also in transition, on the prowl for a “community” to which she could attach herself, anticipating her aging years, and maybe goosing her spirituality in the process. We met her through young Vandad, a 30-something Iranian Canadian, involved in business and social service related to feeding public school children healthy food, for free, funded by the company he's involved with and sanctioned by the school district, while the company is involved in importing high quality coconuts from Thailand, and marketing pure coconut milk unlike any other, and maybe other stuff that I don't remember. A strict vegan for not only health reasons but for planetary survival reasons, he is ethically committed to sustainable living and planetary health, and this includes, particularly, an understanding of the singular, and unmatched damage done by the world's livestock/meat raising industry. An inspiring example of what some of the younger generation is up to.

 So hanging with Kelly and Yada has become a past life family reunion, and both of them are struggling in different ways with leaving Pai – think of how some people arrive in Santa Fe and just can't seem to leave - since they are feeling so mysteriously at home there, and aren't sure what they are to do next. For Nancy and me, leaving Pai will be dictated by the immanent arrival of the burning/smokey season, beginning in earnest in February, when the air will be unbreatheable for a few weeks at least, if not a couple of months, and when anyone who can will leave for destinations untouched by this plague. We're planning to return to Thung Wua Laen Beach, our first extended destination in and introduction to Thailand back in the beginning of November.

Today we took step one of three steps designed to yield us a one year “retirement visa” before we leave Thailand probably toward the end of March, or possibly in April sometime. This entailed visiting the US Consulate General in Chiang Mai – our reason for being here now – and getting a sworn and notarized affidavit attesting to a qualifying level of monthly income. Tomorrow we take step two by visiting Thai immigration and presenting these documents, along with our passports and photos, signing some additional papers, and leaving with new 90 day Non Immigrant visas (as distinct from our current Tourist visas). It is these new visas that will become the foundations for the one year Retirement Extension which we will be eligible to obtain after about another 60 days. Step three of three. At that point, we will be free to come and go into and out of Thailand as we like until about May 2, 2017, before which time we would have to renew this Retirement Extension for another one year.

Why are we doing this? Because we have the idea that we will return to Thailand to spend some extended time in 2016 and 2017, and with these new visas and their extensions, we can remain virtually as long as we like, and leave and re-enter as many times as we might like during each year. If all this seems a bit complex, please be assured that it is. The Thai visa establishment is known for its labrynthine nature, and for its commitment to change and flux, so that what is true today may not be so at all next week, or next month, or next year, and in the end, it is said, and specifically stated on official websites, a lot of what happens is dependent on the immigration officer's discretion on any given day. Policies and laws are open to interpretation and local custom, so that certain locations are known to be more friendly to farang's (foreigner's) needs than others, for example. Chiang Mai is one such friendly location for Americans, we're told. We're hoping that Chumphon will be also, so that we might be able to take step three without having to return to Chiang Mai. We shall see, as we make some inquiries once we are there.

UPDATE:

Well, the labrythine nature of the Thai immigration office has indeed proven itself yet again. Maybe it isn't an accident that we happen to have our time to appear there, yesterday, on the very day that the “big boss” from Bangkok was also scheduled to appear, and in fact did appear as we were in process with one of several officers. Upon his entrance, all the officers stood ceremoniously, while he himself waved them to be seated with a smile of noblesse obilge. In any case, my particular officer was fully officious in both her appearance and her manner, in her starched uniform and full figured and equally starched presence with not a smile to be seen anywhere. In the end, we did not get the visas we had expected, but instead had our payment receipts (2000 baht each) stamped with an “application is under consideration” stamp, and were instructed to return on February 3. WHAT!?

We were confused, and of course disappointed by this. We had paid for the professional visa assist lady's help, expecting her connections in the immigration establishment to come through for us. Come back to Chiang Mai again!?

“Aimmy”, our professional helper, nee Wenika Toomkhum, later informed us that we would not have to appear in person, even though this is stated explicitly in the text of the rubber stamp, but that she would be able to bring our passports into immigration on the appointed day and get the anticipated visas for us. Many of her customers send her their passports from various cities in Thailand for this purpose, she offered. So we left Chiang Mai for Pai, and left our passports with Aimmy. The plan is that we will retrieve them from her, with our new 90 day visa stamps in them, when we next pass through Chiang Mai on our way to Chumphon, sometime in the first half of February. Hopefully her, and our expectations this next time around will be realized.