Conversations about Baggage

So not only is my backpack - with all my cash in it - somewhere in Beijing airport, but Capitol One apparently has frozen my checking account since I failed to alert them that I was going to Thailand, so this morning I found myself in a stanky three-day-old outfit and nearly broke, on a plane to Chiang Mai. I had enough cash to get from the airport to my hotel (since that is all of about $1) and then thank you, thank you, thank you Toby for emailing my Chiang Mai guesthouse to forewarn them of my condition: Sam and Moe were waiting on the street for me when I arrived with welcoming arms and bows and assurances that they would make sure everything worked out, and a banana milkshake.

On my agenda for today was an all-afternoon trip to the mountainside outside Chiang Mai to meet with a monk named Pongsa. Pongsa had emailed me dubiously cryptic instructions (e.g. "get off at gas station. walk 200 km north. turn down dirt path for 25 minutes walking") so for better or for worse I showed them to the guesthouse owner Sam, hoping he'd point me in the right direction. Sam, being an incredible human being, or afraid of losing an American female in the rice paddies, insisted on going with me, which turned out to take up a horrifying 4-5 hours of his time but was invaluable to me.

Sam and I made a number of errant forays down dirt paths before finding one dirt path where an old man on a bicycle had heard of this Phra Pongsa. The old man hopped off the bike and said he'd lead us to Pongsa because it was complicated - at that point I assumed Pongsa was maybe 10 minutes away, but in fact, we had a near hour walk through rice paddies ahead of us. It was surreal - we tiptoed across irrigation canals on incredibly narrow branches laid across 15 foot ditches, walked beneath banana trees, were chased by wild dogs, and at one point passed the most emaciated man I have ever seen in person, completely naked, squatting on a stump, and smoking a huge cigar. I don't know what I would have done without Sam to initally flag the bicycle man down and explain our errand in Thai - probably I would still be wandering through the rice paddies, waving my computer-printout itinerary at day laborers who were actually wearing triangle straw hats and driving water buffalo.

Miraculously though the bicycle man did take us to Pongsa: and then ensued an amazing 2 hours in which Pongsa, a beautiful wizened monk, 62 years old, former professor, shared all sorts of wisdom in near perfect English. Mind you Pongsa and I are sitting on a straw mat in the middle of a giant banana tree field, with a clothesline strung from which Pongsa hangs an orange sheet to block the sun. In the middle of this nothingness, Pongsa held forth with some of the most beautiful teachings I have gotten to ever sit and listen to.

The very first thing Pongsa spoke to me about was baggage, and what a burden it is. How it ties us to things we don't actually need, and how we get greedy and emotional and panicked if we are faced with losing things. But how the only asset that matters is time: it is the only thing we actually own, and someday when it is running out, we would spend all our money and give all our possessions to have more of it, and how important to be present and use it wisely. It was all I could do not to laugh aloud, hearing this on a day that began with me in tears over not having my backpack or money.

Anyhow Pongsa had many amazing teachings that I can relay in person to interested parties; but it was an incredible afternoon, and as a parting gift Pongsa gave me a giant branch of his bananas to take with me. This might have been a lot to haul back for an hour through rice paddies, but Sam hailed a day laborer and negotiated for him to take both of us on his motorcycle back down the mountain - so already on Day One I did what all the guidebooks say never to do, ride a moto with a local (so dangerous), and even worse there were 3 of us and a giant banana branch to boot on a single motorbike. But the ride was a thrill and, obviously, we made it safely back.

I'm now sated on red Thai tofu curry and my luggage is due to arrive at 11:30 PM tonight. No sign of relenting by Capitol One yet, despite my shoving my ATM card into every machine in this entire city, but thank you Toby for still trying to help me reach them or somehow get cash.