The Yin And The Yang Of It, For The Moment

Nancy and I were talking yesterday about my experience of the changes afoot in our lives. It ocurred to me that at least two levels are active, the opposites, the yin and the yang of things as they appear right now vis a vis life stage transitions and personal inclinations and the impetus for this rather than that. I was comparing earlier stages of our lives together and our current stage, and seeing a flip of yins and yangs as they relate to specific global elements, such as, most particularly, being at the ocean.

 

The only other time in our lives together that we lived at the ocean were the years we spent in and around Santa Cruz (CA). The yin, expansive, elaborative, diffusing energy of that location and time had come to be experienced as a dead end for us. During that period we were talking about leaving Santa Cruz for many years, knowing somehow that we wanted to or needed to, but having nowhere to go and no particular reason to go there. Until the earthquake of '89. After that we picked up and within 3 months found ourselves in Santa Fe with two small children and no prospects for anything but a new life.

As it turned out, the mountainous, yang, grounding, solid, consolidating energy of New Mexico was precisely what we needed in order to get things done. Within a year and a half of living in Santa Fe we were on our land, pioneering a new way of life, building a house over the first ten years on the land, raising creative, demanding, sensitive, perceptive and independent children, developing, expressing, learning, going to graduate school, beginning and developing new careers, engaging in and with the world in meaningful and satisfying ways, and of course facing and surmounting all the challenges confronting us over the 25 years we've been there.. We were making things happen. We were doing things. We were living original creative lives. We were healing and growing and manifesting and working and making our marks, such as they might be. Yang. It's what was needed.

And now here we are, at what I'm calling the next, and as far as I can see for myself anyway, the last, stage of life. My experience of this (and being here at the tropical ocean is feeding this view), is that this stage is again more Yin: opened, reflective, expansive, amourphous, receptive, flowing without doing, resting without sloth, nowhere to go and nothing to do as I'm enjoying saying these days, being, allowing, not pushing or forging or making or developing. Being relentlessly and naturally and effortlessly and inescapably creative in this other way. Nancy says that her learning and experience of the past six months has been a lot about finding her home within herself, and being in grace without having to do anything; about a surrendering that is not to a higher power outside of herself, but to the great flow that is herself as well as it is all else; about seeing and experiencing more closely her identity with this flow and with this all else.

What I'm wanting in this stage of my life is just what is happening: an expansion of the yin of things in internal terms: easefulness; gracefulness; a different dimension of responsibility that isn't about carving out a life in the world, but about simply living the life that I have for its own perfect sake; and a contraction, a condensation, a distillation and a consolidation, a yang-i-fying of my obligations and responsibilities in the world of doing and making and accomplishing. This most practically and immediately might include going through our two storage sheds of stuff when we get back to NM and shedding lots of that stuff. It would include reducing my/our foot print in the outer world in other areas, like the kinds of accommodations we would live in, for example (think small is beautiful here). It would include that venerable ideal of simplifying (material) things altogether.

The fact that Nancy and I have lived quite comfortably and harmoniously– ask her about this for her experience; I speak only for myself! - in one room together for the past six months; and that we have lived quite comfortably out of basically two suitcases during this time, speaks loudly and clearly to me about a direction I'm happy to be going in. Lately I've said to Nancy that, for example, I would be quite happy, if we were to rent a place to be for a while in Santa Fe let's say, to live in a furnished studio apartment. She's not altogether certain about this, but not altogether opposed to the idea either. Who can say just yet?

And since the direction and stage of life appears to be moving more yin-ly, we talk about feeling like we may be “done with” the yang-ness of NM, and the “harshness” and “austerity” of the desert, and more ready for an environment of increased “softness” and “lushness” and “gentleness”. Again, being at this tropical jungle ocean feeds this vision and these feelings, but we can't yet say exactly where such a new place might finally be, if it is to be finally anywhere at all, instead of sometimes here and sometimes there.

To be continued..................

Here We Are

I'm sittin' around waiting for a September 2015 Willie Nelson concert video to download on Youtube so I can watch the whole thing, having just a few days ago finished listening to his autobiography: It's A Long Story, on audio book, and developing a new admiration for his story and his music; Nancy has been writing on her Flower Essence Society certification thesis for the last couple of hours - she's making amazing and regular progress on this lengthy and in depth document over the past month here at Thung Wua Laen - and it occurred to me that I might write an update for the blog. So here I am, and here we are.

It feels more like we live here, having been here a little over a month now, seeing certain Thai and foreign people on a regular basis, becoming familiar with shops and restaurants and terrain and routines, and anticipating another 40 days before our departure for the States. During this 40 days we'll be taking a break - gettin' outta Dodge - for a few days next week by taking the train 3 hours north up to Cha Am for a little get-a-way. Just a change of pace and a little change of scenery, like we do back in New Mexico every now and then when we feel like we need a minor re-orientation for a bit. We may or may not contact one or more of several people we now know up there when, or before, we arrive. We may just prefer to remain anonymous, get in and out unseen, and return to our temporary home back here.

Before we leave Thailand on the 21st of April we will have visited Thai Immigration again in Chumphon to receive our 1) one year Retirement Extensions on our current Non-Immigrant visas, and 2) Multiple Re-Entry Permits. These extensions will allow us to return to Thailand at any time before April 24, 2017, and to leave and re-enter as many times as we may wish, if we wish. We expect this to go smoothly and easily, but of course TIT (This Is Thailand), and anything is possible.

At the moment we're talking again about selling our home and land, and Nancy has now said out loud, and with something sounding like real conviction, that we are going to sell. She says she is now truly decided about this, but when I hear her declare it, I still hear something catching in her throat. We have some financial inquiries to make regarding all this, maybe a consultation with a real financial person (CPA, for example) to view our total financial picture and give advise, but it could be that the time is nigh, and if that's true, I'm thinking that selling might go swiftly and smoothly, but...........who can say for sure? Another option is to lease it out again. We'll see.

So, hope you're all doing well and are happy and healthy and deeply aware of and thankful for all the blessings in your precious lives. We're expecting to experience some genuine culture shock upon our return to the good ole U S of A. Lots of things to organize and deal with, so we may be pretty busy for the few months we expect to be there. Nancy is looking forward to getting back to Sherabling in October, so at the moment that's our plan.

Until next time...............................

Diggin' The Beach Life......Plus

I have to say that I'm grateful for our time here at Thung Wua Laen Beach. Nancy and I both, independently, have made it a routine to get out onto the beach in the mid morning for long walks (of about an hour and a half in my case). I sing to God chanting the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra (there's always almost no one else on the beach at this time, or very few people, so I feel free to sing out loud in this way), feel the great blessing of being in the thick of this natural setting, respond joyfully to the negative ions, and by the way get some enjoyable and moderate exercise in the process.

We think we'll be getting a one year visa extension around March 21, which will allow us to come and go in and out of Thailand until end of April 2017. Whether or not this pans out, we'll be returning to the States around the 22nd of April, flying to NY to spend some time with my mother and some friends, and then to Florida to house sit and person sit, MaryAnn's (Nancy's sister) house and Aaron's newly USA-ified spouse while he's in Japan teaching drumming, for a month or so. We're planning to be in NM around late June.

Just me at home, writing the blog

Along those lines, we would love to find a house sitting gig in Santa Fe for anything including say July, August and September. So if anything possible comes across your awareness, kindly keep us in mind. At this moment our plan is to return to India and Thailand starting in October again, assuming our house is leased, or........................sold? or ............................?  Still leaving it open.

This suggests that I will be retired after all. When we left last October I was saying that I was taking a six month sabbatical. When I talk about and think about it now, I usually say  something like: "I'm probably retired"; or "I may be retired".

Well, I'm off to our friend Du's little beach side place for a cuppa and maybe some of his home made bread-toast, while I read (The Sense Of An Ending by Julian Barnes; or Willie Nelson's autobiography, It's A Long Story. Hooray for ebooks!) and wait for Nancy to finish her practice and come on over.

Catch y'all later.

The Journey Turns, As It Must And Inevitably, Inward

I suppose the initial blush of enthusiasm for blogging has faded, so my posts are less frequent now and I'll have to push past the inclination to ignore writing altogether. It isn't that we aren't having a good time, or that we aren't continuing to meet wondeful people and have delightful and interesting and meaningful experiences. It's more a case of settling into what is perhaps my more natural inclination towards silence. At a recent spoken word open mike event at Art In Chai, a cafe in Pai, there were two people who shared themselves via stories about their intergalactic friends and lives and experiences, or their rambling, seemingly endless and in my opinion pretty self indulgent soliloquy about the wonders of the realities of love and bliss and happiness and joy, etc. etc. etc. In speaking about this later with some friends, I offered that in my opinion and experience, along with that of the The Bard's, most of the hubub and chatter and noise that people make about this and that and the other thing is so much sound and fury signifying, after all, nothing. This also reflects a particular kind of mystical view and experience, which leans strongly toward the primacy of silence as the closest approximation of the experience of It, and for certain personalities, in which group I include my own, this bias is not of small importance.

Along with this is the oft repeated line that I find myself uttering in conversation these days, when exploring the experience of traveling, with other travelers, that my interest isn't in visiting this place and that place, or looking for the perfect or most wonderful or most amazing beach or temple or city or town or destination or for the most wonderful and friendly and generous and welcoming people to be found in SE Asia, for example...........but in settling into a specific place that we already know we like, more long term and more deeply, developing relationships in this place and with this place. A corollary to this premise is a “good enough is good enough” approach to being in the world. It pre-supposes a more realistic, I think, view and experience of people and of places, rather that the more fantastical, I'd say, approach of gobbling up quantities of experiences in the belief that this will somehow translate itself into real satisfaction or happiness or accomplishment, or even enjoyment.

Chillin' at Art In Chai, Pai

Our surprise anniversary party at Pai Laguna, provided by "Charlie", the owner and new friend

Charlie, philosopher owner of Pai Laguna

Floral peacock tail at TWL Wat festivities

So “counting” blog posts (is this anything like counting coup?), as it were, has lost its interest for me, and as I settle more deeply into the experience of being on the road, away from “home”, imagining being away from “home” more often and for longer periods, imagining “living” in other places – these other places would, based on our current thinking and explorations, be in Thailand primarily, and some in India – the nature of my relationship with writing about my experience is changing as well. I'm no longer interested in publishing a travelogue, so to speak, highlighting reports of our experiences and meetings with nice photos and videos and commentary on what went on where. Maybe, if I continue to write, it will be more about what it's like to live in a foreign country day to day. I don't know, really. Maybe I will continue on the course I'm on now, which is to say, not writing much or often, and I suspect that what I do write about will be of considerably less interest to people who may have been primarily interested in keeping up with our “travels”.

Back at Thung Wua Laen Beach

Mathematics and philosophy "professor" Sydney, retired to TWL beach from...Long Island!

Or, maybe I'm merely in a different cycle of things at the moment.

I have also been taking far fewer photos than I was initially, but herein are some that I'd like to share.

And Now What?

I've begun thinking about what I would do when we spend a longer term in one location here in Thailand. Right now I'm imagining October, November, December and January in Pai, then a month or more at TWL Beach and/or Cha Am, and finally a month or so at Sherabling in April. I don't know if this will fit into our visa requirements, but assuming we could make that work, this schedule now is starting to make more sense to me. This would be 7 months away from the US. We'd see my mom at the beginning – late September, say – and at the end – late April, say - of our time away.(Nancy and I are already experiencing conflicting needs regarding this version of our schedule. She wants to be in Sherabling during parts of next October and November for teachings from Situ Rimpoche, while I'm wanting to be in Pai. We shall see.)

So the question of how to be of service has arisen for me, and really for us. How to make a contribution while “living abroad”, as Heather, Nancy's astrological consultant, has characterized our time. Now that we've explored, and discovered places that we would want to be longer term, and gotten ourselves acclimated to Thailand, so that not every breath and every action is a consuming adventure that occupies us considerably, how can I spend meaningful time other than planning where to eat our meals, for example.

If I'm retiring as a therapist, at least in the US, at least as I've known it, would I want to provide some kind of related service to people in Thailand? Expats in Pai? Would there be any need for this service? (Clearly there is always the need; but would there be any demand?)

What are my gifts and talents that would lend themselves both to serving others in some way of alleviating some suffering, and serving myself with meaningful engagement?

These are questions about what to do when you live somewhere, and are not just traveling and passing through. Given who I am and how I operate, not the networker that Nancy is for example, how can this question take shape and be answered gracefully? What will God lead me to? That's the real question here. So having begun asking the question, almost immediately....................

we keep meeting wonderful people. Last night I met Glen, a black French man, I think, married to a Thai woman who sells “burritos” and lasagnas on the walking street each nite, and father of two adorable small children, and, as it turns out, a pretty skilled and educated jazz guitarist. When I walked up to Glen's wife's cart last night to order a vegetarian burrito, I saw Glen behind the cart, and he saw me, and he got up and said to me: Do I know you from somewhere? I don't know, I said, and he said, maybe from around here, on the street, and I said maybe so. An entirely unexpected and brief encounter, and we each went on with our business. Later that evenning, after checking out some live music at one of the many bars in Pai, with Kelly and Nancy and David Kinschie, a very old friend of Nancy's from the Seventies, and leaving because I didn't care for what was being offered, I walked back up the street to where I had seen Glen noodling on an acoustic guitar a few minutes before, and had liked what I'd heard, and he was still at it, as I'd hoped he would be. I stopped and asked if he would mind if I listened, and of course we got to talking, and eventually he asked if I played, and I told him I was a percussionist, and that my foundation in drumming was jazz, and this caught his surprised attention. We talked a bit more, and he told me about an open mike on Sunday nights at Over Hear, and that there was a drum kit there, and I thought that would be great fun, and he asked me if I was “ok with something like this” and riffed off into a fast swinging little set of changes and I began beat boxing the rhythm to his guitar, and we swung for a few minutes that way, and we were both smiling broadly and clearly enjoying the exchange. Today I saw him again as he passed by on his motorbike with his guitar case slung across his back, and we exchanged waves and peace signs.

Today, at Pai Laguna, we met Rakaia and Chris, two thirty somethings just here from India for some R and R. These two grew up together in Utah, and are best friends today. Chris is a photographer and film maker, and his current project, over the last two years in India and Nepal, is an independent documentary film about human trafficking. Very heavy stuff, and he's in the dangerous trenches with it, pretty much on his own, and is of course being effected by it with secondary trauma and ptsd. Rakaia is his support person and sometime traveling companion, and is a body worker, energy healer and photographer as well. They landed at Pai Laguna the night before, spent, in need of a quiet place to regroup emotionally and physically. As it turned out though, it's too cold here for Chris, which has been triggering some trauma reactions, and he has already left for warmer Thai climes and a piece of photography work to make some needed money. 

Nancy and I were just sitting out on the wonderful patio/hanging/dining area next to one of the two ponds, warming ourselves in the morning sun, and Chris and Rakaia were sitting at a nearby table doing the same. Of course soon enough we got to talking, and Chris at first reluctantly began sharing his experience of the past two years. Reluctantly because he knows that this kind of sharing can easily be trumatizing to others, and because not too many people would want to hear about it anyway. Once he learned that Nancy and I work with trauma professionally, the exchange deepened, and between that morning and the next, when we saw them again, he was sharing an idea that he's had for a long while about starting an NGO to work with the survivors of trafficking sex slavery, and offering Nancy and I an opportunity to be a part of this. (Chris said he's worked already with over 50 NGO's in India, and that some of what he's seen in the way of “therapy” has often been re-traumatizing for the victims. He's seen, he said, a lot of what works and a lot of what doesn't, and he wants to start his NGO to build on what does. ) This was based on the almost instant connection and spiritual bond that we'd formed in a couple of hours time, and his deep respect for Nancy and I and how we approach our work. 

We were both blown away by this suggestion and offer. Overwhelmed, really. Both by the thought of what this could involve professionally, and by the level of personal connection implied by the overture itself. Of course, nothing is decided; only the idea has been presented. We're in no hurry to think about what this might mean, except to acknowledge it as an opening into something related to the new kind of questioning I'm doing. Nancy for her part has been worrying about how and where she will get to do her Flower Essence work, her calling and her love, if we aren't in the States, or don't have a permanent home. And this possibility presents itself "out of the blue". Just an affirmation that we don't really need to be worrying about the how or the where, or even the what, but to continue to stay open to what is coming to us freely. 

Another level of our experience is being deeply heartened by some of the twenty and thirty-something's we've met who are “carrying the torch” as we're putting it, of what we and many others were involved with starting in the Sixties or Seventies. The old “hippy” values of peace and love, of service, of creating a new world based on a deeper experiential spirituality, are being lived and extended by new generations of people with similar sensibilities. We don't always get to see this, and I think we sometimes lose sight of what is happening amidst all the horror that we can encounter everywhere through the media propaganda designed to serve the 1%, if you like. People who have the courage to challenge power; to live lives of commitment to truth and mutual respect and wellbeing. People not afraid to make personal sacrifices in the service of their larger human family. Wow. This is a deeply emotional and heart warming experience for us.

                                                                                                               

We are questioning what our new roles as elders will be in this next stage of our lives. What “work” will we do to contribute to the ongoing and greater individual and planetary healing? How will we share our own hard earned wisdom, insight, understanding, humanity, devotion and dedication? What is it exactly that we have to offer, and how best to offer it? For Nancy and me, there have always come points in our joint lives when we have had to ask: And now what? We've done this, and we've done that, and it's been wonderful and blessed and creative and meaningful. And then it's over, in some real sense. Another stage arises, another time with another agenda required. And now what? We're in the process of discovering what this answer will be, and are feeling so blessed and privileged and honored to be able to live the questions, and to receive what is next in store, un-imagined, unexpected, unplanned, for us. For this adventure too, we're.......................leaving it open.

Shekina Garden

We'd heard about some kind of fundraiser taking place in town, for some people who wanted to go to Greece to work, somehow, with Syrian refugees there. It was supposed to happen, Nancy was told by Yada, on Saturday night, the day after our return from Chiang Mai. But as we were wondering around town, having had dinner at The Good Life and then walking up one of the walking streets past the carts and shops and vendors and food sellers, Nancy saw a little flyer that informed us that this fundraiser was instead tonight, Friday, and was set to begin in a few minutes at 7PM. Where was it? Shekina Garden? What and where is that? Well, the backside of the handout was, naturally, a map of downtown Pai showing exactly where it was along the other side of the Pai River across a rickety little bamboo walking bridge. We decided to walk the short distance and check it out. Shekina Garden, after all, had its own attraction and mysterious appeal.

Over the bridge and down a little dirt lane and there it was. People gathering slowly, “on hippy time” as it was put, to support Brian and Katie Ernst, a young couple who had found their way to Pai to recover from some serious illnesses contracted in Kenya while there serving their non profit Journey4YOUth, which provides ground level support for orphans, widows, and families in a small village, through micro loans, rain water catchment projects, school uniforms and fees, free lunches and other means of “standing beside” the people in what they envision for themselves. When not volunteering in Kenya – they take no money from their non profit for themselves – they live and travel in a converted school bus run on waste vegetable oil with Brian as a professional touring musician, by which means they support themselves and their projects. Very inspiring young people, themselves inspired by their Christian faith and bhakti devotion to Jesus and his teachings and example, as they understand it.

Kids, families, dread locked hair, community, a bunch of Aussie's moved to Pai from Varanasi, India, where they had had a “Jesus devotional ashram” for eight years, as Brendan, one of the male figures put it. Twenty and thirty something's, doing some great heart motivated, faith based, devotional service work in the world, and on this night they were sponsoring this fundraiser for Brian and Katie to support their next calling to head to Greece and offer words of comfort, and concrete items of support – blankets, food, water, clothing, whatever – to those one to three thousand refugees per day arriving on the island of Lesbos, with nothing, in need of everything, in what is now the most massive migration of displaced people since the Second World War.

So we hung with these folks, listened to open mike music and poetry by some extremely gifted people as it turned out, and then a mini concert by Brian, who uses looping technology to create a one man band effect of multi layered hip rap reggae-ish rhythm based music, “a white Michael Franti”, as Nancy called him. What a serendipitous treat for us. 

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.