Comfort Hotel, Toronto

Kathleen's first words this morning were "It is amazing how a 2 star hotel in Canada can seem luxurious".   It is is interesting all the things we notice such as:

Comfort Hotel

No air conditioner running all night.
Knives with every meal
You can drink the water out of the tap - that is tough to get used to.
Lots of towels in the room
Wifi that is free, works with all our devices and has a strong signal in our room.
A customs lady who smiles and speaks with a Canadian accent.
Menus that we can read
Signs that we understand
A bathtub
A sink with both hot and cold water.
When you go outside it is actually colder than it is inside

Facebook at breakfast is one constant

Bangkok sounds exotic - the customs lady was quite impressed that we had come from Bangkok that day
$25 for breakfast! That was enough to feed us for four days in Thailand.
Rice does not appear on the breakfast menu
No need to carry a toilet roll here
They drive on the right

We had a wonderful trip but it is nice to be back.

Bangkok

Bangkok Traffic:
Washroom queue at Grand Palace

Thai outboard

Every time a Thai has said anything to us about Bangko, the first thing he or she has mentioned is the traffic. Bangkok is famous for traffic tie-ups. Ajaan Rien used to teach at Thammasat University in Bangkok and he said he had to leave home at 4:30 in order to get to work by 8:30. That is why he moved to Chiang Mai. So when we were approaching Bangkok on Wednesday afternoon, we were expecting the worst, but in fact we made a quick passage to our first event – a boat cruise on Chao Phraya (Royal) river. We actually went up one of the canals that extend off the river. In some ways it was like Venice. The dwellings along the canal covered the whole range from elegant to slum, often next door to each other. I had an opportunity to observe close-up the Thai equivalent of an outboard motor in action. It actually looks like a truck engine mounted on gimbals at the stern of the boat with a very long shaft extending into the water with a prop on the end. Steering is done by swiveling the engine around, prop and all. They seem to maneuver quite handily but it must take some muscles to do it.

We went to a BBQ place for dinner, much like the one we had been to in Chiang Mai. This time I was an old pro and found the bacon right away.

Angkor Wat Model

At the Grand Palace

Our last day in Thailand began with a visit to the Grand Palace. Construction was begun by King Rama I in 1782 and the palace has been added to and modified many times since. It is used for many ceremonial occasions but the king does not live there any more. As we approached, we were struck by the large number of tour buses – there must have been hundreds of them. Ajaan Rien told us that by the time we arrived at 9:00 am they had already admitted 10,000 tourists. Kathleen had to wait 30 minutes in the line for the washroom and then literally had to elbow her way out when she was finished. Ajaan Rien kept saying there were too many Chinese tourists. Also it was very hot and humid so one had to maintain a sense of humour to enjoy the experience A number of our students were suffering from heat exhaustion and tourist shock by the time we left around 11:30. But the sites were indeed worth it. They included a large scale model of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, several throne rooms and many spectacular Chedis.

Elephant War
National Museum, Bangkok

After lunch we had a tour through the National Museum with many interesting dioramas of events from Thai history. For once they let is take pictures (no flash) so I have something to remember it by. Our last visit was to see the reclining Buddha. It is a huge statue of Buddha lying down apparently waiting to die.

And that concludes our time in Thailand - we are now on our way home after eight amazing weeks in Southeast Asia.

Posted in Bangkok airport.  We got here in 30 minutes so we have 3 hours to wait.  Bangkok traffic is unpredictable.

Four Kingdoms of Siam

Chedi in Sisatchanalai

This past week we have travelled through Thai history as we bussed the 600 km south from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. The history started with the 12th and 13th century kingdom with its capital in Sukhothai, the second kingdom in Ayuthaya (1350 to 1767), the third kingdom (Taksin) near Bangkok, and the fourth kingdom (the Rama dynasty) based in Bangkok (1782 to 1932).

Our first stop was Sisatchanalai – one of four satellite cities of Sukhothai. This was a 12^th century ruin from the first Siamese Kingdom. This city was notable for its many Chedi and the fact that it was all built from quarried stone – laterite. We had a good time wandering around this site but it was much warmer and more humid than we were used to in Chiang Mai so after an hour or so we were happy to get back on our air-conditioned bus.

Cycling through Sukhothai

It was cooler by the time we arrived at Sukhothai, and we enjoyed a bicycle tour of the ruins of the city. Our first stop was a Hindu temple and Ajaan Rien, our guide, described a ritual that would have taken place there that involved a virgin and a stone phallus. After hearing that, I think that if I had had to choose between the two, I would have chosen Buddhism, but that is probably a hasty judgment – I am sure Hinduism has its attractions. Ajaan Rien certainly had the students' attention during this discussion. After that we had free time to bike to the many and very extensive Buddhist temples on the site.

The SSU team in front of the Hindu temple at
Sukhothai

Our hotel that night had free wifi in the lobby only which was infested with mosquitoes – the most aggressive I have experienced on this trip. We should have used our anti-malaria pills there instead of in the Karen village where we hardly ever saw a mosquito! The buffet dinner in the hotel (thankfully mosquito-free) reminded me of our trip with SSU in Greece and Turkey. It was hard not to overeat with so many choices of interesting food to try.

On Tuesday we headed south again towards Ayuthaya, the capital of the second Siamese Kingdom. The people of Ayuthaya defeated the people of Sukhothai in 1350 and moved the capital south. In Ayuthaya we visited a temple site, once again with lots of Chedi, by the Chao Praya or Royal River (pronounced here as “loyal liver”).

Summer Palace - Buddhist shrine and  the Petite Trianon

Summer Palace like the
Forbidden City

Wednesday we visited the summer palace just north of Bangkok. We drove over a flat plain on the 60 km trip south from Ayuthaya. Except for the wet rice fields and the occasional Buddhist shrine, it could have been Manitoba. The summer palace was built by King Chulalongkorn (King Rama V 1868 – 1910) during the fourth kingdom of Siam (1767 - 1932). He was the son of the King of The King and I fame. Rama V had travelled to France and was very taken with Versailles, so the summer palace has a Petite Trianon and a small Gothic church which is, in fact, a Buddhist temple. Kathleen was particularly taken aback by this mixing of cultures. The site was beautiful with numerous waterways and buildings built in many different styles, including a small-scale version of the Chinese Forbidden City. We enjoyed a trip across the river in a cable car.

The third kingdom was short lived and I do not think there is much left, but our Bangkok hotel is on the location of the third kingdom so we can say we have visited there too. This trip has certainly opened the door of Thai history for us. I can hardly wait to watch the King and I and Anna and the King again.

​

Nyo Tsa Akha

Lego play at the Akha Center

We have been joined on this trip by Doreen (John's wife) and their friends from Minnesota, Maurice and Caroline Spangler. On Friday and Saturday John E. led the six of us on a jaunt to the Northeastern corner of Thailand. Our first stop was at the Akha Outreach Foundation center just south of Chiang Rai.

Doreen, Maurice, Carolyn, Nancy and \Kathleen
at the Rimkok

The Akha are one of the hill tribes in Thailand and are somewhat parallel to the Karen villagers we visited earlier. The Akha people are currently spread among five countries - China, Burma, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.  Thailand is the only "open" country with Akha - about 100,000 live in Thailand.  Of  those about 30% are now Christian, while overall in Thailand Christians represent less than 1% of the population. The Akha in Thailand came for the most part in the 1960s and 70s, when they were fleeing severe persecution in Southern China.  Many Thais look down on the Akha because they are poor, tend to get trapped by opium and prostitution, and do not speak Thai.

Worship at the Akha Center

The Akha foundation, a Christian outreach to the Akha people, is involved in Bible translation into the Akha language, education of Akha Christian leaders, and care of homeless and orphaned Akha children.  About 120 children (ages five to teen) live at the center. The leaders of this organization are Nancy and her husband Aje. Nancy came to Thailand with YWAM twenty years ago and she eventually met Aje. Aje is an Akha born in China; his family miraculously escaped to Thailand.  He was one of only three children in the group who survived - most of them died.

The Church in Nyo Tsa

Nancy took us for  a wonderful lunch at the Rimkok Resort Hotel (we were even given knives to eat with, which is very unusual in Thailand). After checking into a guesthouse  in Chiang Rai, we went back to the Foundation for dinner and a Friday night worship service. It was amazing to see the intensity of the worship.  Tunes we knew like Matt Redman's Blessed Be the Lord were sung in Thai (or Akha - I couldn't tell which) with overheads in Thai script. The student choir sang What a Friend We Have in Jesus, once again in Thai or maybe Akha. The four-part harmony was amazing!

Thanksgiving service

We were up early on Saturday for the drive to an Akha village, Nyo Tsa Akha, for their rice festival.  The majority of the population are animist and their celebration is designed to appease the spirits by offering sacrifices. The festival of the Christians is the equivalent of our Thanksgiving and is a celebration of gratitude to God for the rice harvest. The village is about 1 1/2 hours north of Chiang Rai in the mountains and is only about 20 km from China. The mountain drive was as spectacular as any we have had on this trip, and at the end Kathleen was concentrating on holding onto her breakfast.

Thanksgiving feast in Nyo Tsa

The church there consists of seven families from the village and I think it is a fair proportion of the local population. The building was decorated with all the fruits of the harvest - squash, rice, bananas, etc. Once again the worship was wonderful, this time in Akha with no overheads but mostly familiar tunes of choruses and hymns like Bringing in the Sheaves.  We listened to a one-hour sermon given by Aje.  Since he delivered it in Akha, it was a challenge not to nod off (we succeeded - I only had to nudge Kathleen a couple of times). One interesting thing I noticed was that Aje often used the word alors and I thought he was going to switch to French. I asked him about it afterwards and he was unaware it was a French word, but it does have the same meaning in Akha as in French. Laos and Vietnam were colonized by the French, so I expect that is the source of the word in Akha. It was the only word we understood.

Drying rice in Nyo Tsa

After the service we shared in their thanksgiving feast.  An American girl, Juliana, was sitting beside me so she was able to fill me in on what I was eating.  We enjoyed the meal and the fellowship.

After that was the long ride back to Chiang Mai but the van was very comfortable so it was no hardship.  We stopped briefly at the Akha Foundation to drop off the people from there who had come with us.  Just as we were leaving, Nancy said to Kathleen and me that she expected to see us back there.  Interesting - we don't know what the Lord may have in mind for us next.

Elephant Park

Elephants crossing the Ping River

On our way back from the Hill Tribes visit, we stopped at an Elephant Park.  We went from a non-touristy place to probably the most tourist-oriented place in Thailand.   But the elephants looked like they were well cared for, lots of people were being employed, and we had a lot of fun.

Elephant art

We started by watching an Elephant show. Kathleen's favourite part of the elephant show was seeing one of the elephants pee and poop,  It really was quite impressive. The park was selling everything imaginable, including the paintings done by the elephants and elephant-poop paper.  However nobody seems to have come up with a way to sell elephant pee yet. Elephant pee beer doesn't quite appeal.  Maybe elephant pee mosquito repellent would sell.  At one point in the show, the elephants came up to the audience so the audience could pass things to them.  The elephants ate whatever they were given except in the case of money - that got passed to the trainer. Good training!

Our Elephnat

After a buffet lunch overlooking the Ping River, we all climbed on elephants for a ride across the river, up along a trail through the forest and then back across the river. The elephants move quite slowly but the ride is certainly not what you would call smooth. Hanging on would be extremely tiring if you had to go any significant distance. Vendors sold us bananas and sugar cane to feed to the elephant.  Our elephant went through a bunch of bananas very quickly.  He didn't even bother to peel them. The elephants grab things with their trunks, so there is no concern about being bitten.

After the elephant ride was over, we had a raft ride for four or five km down the Ping river.  The rafts were made of bamboo poles and were quite stable so there was no worry about getting wet. Two men with poles stood at each end and kept the raft in mid stream.  The current was fairly fast and there were a few rapids but not what you would call white water.  It took about 45 minutes to drift down to the end point.  Our drivers picked us up there and then it was back to Chiang Mai.

Rafting down the Ping River

Despite the touristy atmosphere it was a wonderfully fun outing and I gained an appreciation for the strength and intelligence of elephants.

John E., Alyssa, Gavin and Nancy
on their raft

Journey North

A, Yai, Mai, Nai and Jay

We participated in a three day, two night, trip to northwestern Thailand. Our group of 23 consisted of 13 students, 5 SSU leaders including Kathleen and myself, and 5 CMU guides. Our guides included the leader Yai and his assistant Mai, Jay, an ex peace corp volunteer, and two interpreters, A and Nai, who spoke both Thai and Karen.  Names that end in ai seem to be very popular. The guides were all very knowledgeable and we felt well looked after. It took a while to get the right name attached to the right face but we did and we became friends with each of them.  A kept telling me how strong I was as I completed both walks at Huay Hin Lad Nai - I think she thought that such an old person would have had trouble with the hills. I was flattered.

Lunch in Ban Sansali

Organic fertilizer mixing

Our first stop was at Ban Sansali village where we were treated to a wonderful lunch and demonstrations of the local farming practices.  The emphasis of the village is on sustainable organic agriculture. They are growing several organic crops including rice, fish, fruit and coffee.  The coffee they served us was the best we have had since Equator and we bought a bag of beans to take home.  Craig and Amber - any interest in a Thailand contact?  They showed us how they make fertilizer and bio-diesel.   This place was considered lowland agriculture and our next stop was a Karen village, Huay Hin Lad Nai, specializing in highland sustainable farming. I have talked about our two days there in a separate entry.

Songthaew in the village

We left the Karen village early on Friday morning  travelling in a modern SUV and two songthaews.  Because of our seniority we got to ride in the SUV - very comfortable with A/C.  The songthaews were not so comfortable, especially on the twisty mountain road we followed after leaving the village.  Within an hour several members of the group had left their breakfast beside the road.  The back of a songthaew is open so this does not pose too much of a logistical problem as long as one can climb over the other occupants quickly enough.

Someone commented that they were envious of us having all this fun and getting paid for it.  That is a misconception - we are having fun but paying our own way.  We are both agreed that the experience has been worth every penny we have invested in it.

Karen village

We stayed for two days and nights at a Karen village about 100 km north of Chiang Mai. The Karen are a group of people that moved to Thailand originally from South China many centuries ago. There are about 400,000 of them in Thailand and most them live in small isolated villages in the mountains of northwestern Thailand.  Many of them have turned themselves into tourist attractions - notably the long neck Karens you may have heard of. The group we visited had not succumbed to that temptation - this was not a tourist resort.

There have been numerous studies done of this village by various groups such as CMU looking at issues of sustainable development. That was the nominal focus of our visit but we found so much more than that.

The sleeping arrangements

The village is located in a deep valley surrounded by mountains. Because of the mountains there are no cell phones or any other form of communication with the outside world. There is no electricity so we found ourselves going to bed at sunset and getting up at sunrise. Electronics withdrawal was significant but we needed the extra time for sleeping as there wasn't much between us and the floor. Kathleen has mentioned bruised hips several times since our visit. The call of nature in the middle of the night was a challenge as we had to cross the room full of sleeping bodies, unlatch the door and descend a flight of stairs to the outdoor facilities, all in total darkness.  We were thankful for our led flashlights.

The man who explained his mousetrap

It was a delight to meet the people of the village.  I had a fun interaction with the village spiritual leader.  The Karen speak their own language and for them Thai is a second language, so going from Karen to Thai to English was often a challenge. This man wanted to show me a mouse trap he had built (or maybe invented - I don't know).  After a series of gestures and demonstrations, I managed to set the mouse trap.  He suggested I stick my finger in it, but I think he was joking.  I used a stick instead and the trap worked as expected and I still have ten fingers.  It was fun connecting even in this very limited way - I felt like he was a friend.

The children observing us as we arrived.

The children in their best clothes to say goodbye

There were fifteen children in the village (total population 102) and they were of course beautiful. When we first arrived they were visible standing under a house nearby (most of the houses are on stilts), peeking at all these strange creatures that had just arrived. It was fun watching as over the next couple of hours the ice was broken and they started to interact with our students. On the day we left they were all present and got Canada sticker tattoos from us.

Wetland rice field

One of the villagers' primary occupations is living off the products of the surrounding forest.  In the morning we did a mountain walk rising through the forest about 300 meters above the village.  It was fascinating to see how they had very subtly managed the forest to supply the food they need.  What at first glance just looked like random forest turned out to be deliberately cultivated, interspersed with large sections of natural forest.  In the afternoon we hiked about four km one way to the rice fields.  The villagers grow both wet and hillside rice and it is all done with manual labour.  The hillside rice is grown on a seven-year cycle.  One year of cropping is followed by six years of natural growth so when the next crop is due, they have to start by re-clearing the jungle.  I had my mouse trap lesson at a shelter at the far end of this trek.

Six people including an infant live here to be near the rice fields

The village has so far managed to more or less maintain its traditional lifestyle.  There have been some modern encroachments.   The motorbikes they drive along the mountain footpaths to take the workers to the rice fields and to transport the harvested rice back, and the solar-powered satellite internet-connected computers in the school are examples.  But for the most part the Karen are still living the way their ancestors did hundreds of years ago. The big question is how long can this continue?  The place they live in has been designated as a national park - they don't have any property rights at all and could, in theory, be evicted at a moment's notice.  But they manage the forest very effectively and are probably Thailand's best option for maintaining this national treasure.


  

Food Pointing

Breakfast in the garden

Most of our days in Chiang Mai start with breakfast in the garden of our guest house.  One day, while we were waiting to be served, I went up to the balcony of our room and took the attached photo.  Usually there would have been more of our group present, but this was a Saturday and we were the only ones not sleeping in past six a.m. - crazy seniors.  But Kathleen is not really alone - she has her iPad with Scrabble!   Kathleen often has fruit with yogurt while I most often enjoy good old bacon and eggs with coffee.

Coconut Milk

At the CMU dinner

We have done a lot of our shopping at a neighbourhood of Chiang Mai known as the Night Bazaar, so we frequently eat there as well.  One of our favourite spots (introduced to us by John Evans) has a system of purchasing coupons to be used at various stalls that convert coupons into food or drinks.  Because of our non-existent Thai language, it is a point-and-hope situation, but most of the time the food is delicious and always interesting.  On one occasion, Kathleen ordered a coconut with two straws. The coconut milk didn't go down too quickly (we have learnt something in 44 years of marriage) and it was very refreshing.

Many of our lunches have been eaten in the CMU cafeteria and this has also been also a point-and-eat situation. Most of the time it has worked out well and choices are always very inexpensive, but there were a few times when flames could be seen coming out of our mouths. One of the food highlights there was eating the cooking class results, as noted in a previous blog entry.

Thai dancing girls

One evening our whole group attended a traditional Thai dinner set up by our hosts at CMU.  We sat on the floor in front of low tables but there were cushions and a place to put our feet so it was quite comfortable for us westerners.  During dinner we were entertained with traditional Thai music and dance.

Thai BBQ

Another interesting meal we shared with John Evans and Madi and Jen was at the Thai version of an outdoor BBQ.  There was one long table with all the ingredients laid out.  You chose from those (no pointing in this case) and then cooked them at your own table over a charcoal fire with an inverted cone over it.   The cone had a place for liquids around the edge while the center part could be used for grilling. The juices from the grilling ran down into the liquid so you basically made soup at the same time as you were grilling your meat.   There were no labels on anything so all I could figure out was that some items were vegetable and some were meat.  By trial and error I discovered the bacon so I enjoyed that while Kathleen enjoyed the vegetables and whatever soup was produced - all cooked over the same fire.  It was fairly warm sitting right next to the fire and all the time I was hoping the brazier was well supported as it was just over my knees.

Huen Phen dinner for two

On anther evening we visited a restaurant that had been recommended by Colin Ying, a friend of Kathleen's whom she knew forty years ago and who currently lives in Australia.  The Huen Phen seemed like a very traditional Northern Thai (Lanna) restaurant. We were the only farang (foreigners) in a full house. I doubt if it has changed at all since Colin was there. We did not understand the menu but we figured out there was a dinner for two so we had that - selected by pointing, of course.  I have no idea what we ate but we finished it all in short order so it was either very good or we were very hungry.

We also enjoyed the meals during our recent stay at a Karen village.  Every meal included rice and was accompanied by locally farmed fish, chicken, or pork, and vegetables we had no way of recognizing. But the organic food must have agreed with us because we both felt very healthy on that diet.

We have obviously been greatly enjoying eating in Thailand.  When we return to Canada the moment of truth will come when we find out what our scales will say about all the rice we have consumed .

CMU Classes

Chiang Mai University (CMU) has been trying to educate us for the past week.  I am not sure how successful they have been, but it has certainly been interesting.  We had lectures in Thai etiquette, Thai cooking, and and Thai language. Interestingly there have been no lectures yet in Thai history.  I think that the courses so far have all been designed to help us students overcome whatever culture shock they may have been experiencing.

Kathleen practising the "Wai" while eating breakfast
(and thinking about Scrabble)

In etiquette class, we learned how to "wai" - the traditional Thai greeting.  For Kathleen and me, this is sort of optional as, being seniors, everybody is supposed to "wai" us and we can respond as we please. Thai culture is fairly formal by Canadian standards and one of the things that we appreciate is the respect they have for seniors.  They actually believe that people with grey hair know something! We are hoping that the young people on this trip absorb this bit of Thai culture and carry it back to Canada.  Another value I appreciate is that they discourage smoking whenever somebody else is within smelling distance.

Kathleen having fun cooking

The cooking class was lots of fun.  My partner was Kathleen - "John, you have to read the recipe!" - I kept leaving out steps.  At the end, the instructor came along and with a whirlwind of moves, finished for us.  We made chicken curry, sticky rice with mango, and pad thai.  We got to eat the fruits of our labour - it was all delicious.

Sign outside a Wat (Buddhist temple) we visited
(note the Thai script)

Our Thai language instructor is delightful.  He keeps telling us Thai is an easy language.  Somehow I haven't got to the easy part yet.  The Thai script is beautiful but totally incomprehensible to me and is hard to follow because it does not leave any spaces between words in a sentence - it is just one big long string of characters which are totally unrelated to the Roman characters we are used to. So our language teacher uses a phonetic alphabet with at least some familiar characters and sounds.  But there are a whole lot of new sounds as well.  To say spicy duck you say "phet pet".  Both words sound identical to me but Kathleen says she can hear a difference.  I think I will stick to eating plain chicken - they have a lot of chicken dishes here.

Thais are very polite.  One thing they do is add a word at the the end of most sentences just to make it more polite - sort of like us adding sir or madam.  The ladies add "kha" and the men add "khrap".  Whenever I say thank you, it is pronounced "kop khun khrap."  It is hard not to think about how that sounds in Canada. I note that at McThai (aka McDonalds) the men serving use "kop kun kha," maybe because they don't want to have the tourists think they are serving "-----"!

Next Stop

Great Eastern Hotel, Quezon City, Manila

Monday was a travel day as we voyaged from Manila to Chiang Mai in Thailand.  It started with breakfast at 5:00 am at the Great Eastern Hotel in Manila.  We very much enjoyed our stay at the Great Eastern - the bed-bug stories were totally unfounded.  It was spotless and the food was great.  Certainly our most luxurious stay so far.

We had a long bus ride to the airport - about 1.5 hours for 15 km - I was told that was light traffic. There were lots of hugs and tears saying fair-well to the folks from NWU. Three flights and three connections later we arrived in Chiang Mai with the only excercise being  a moderately fast run in Hong Kong.  Then we were treated to a songthaew ride to the hotel - we arrived about 10:30 pm.  The king-size bed here is a great luxury but just a shower so no soaks.  We slept hard but were up early the next day partly due to the time change.

A Buddhist temple near the hotel

The moat near our hotel

Tuesday morning I went for a short walk and was delighted with my first look at Chiang Mai. It is a walled city (only parts of the wall are still standing) with a moat on all four sides. It is almost a perfect square with each side about 1 mile long.  We are here for almost three weeks so I expect we will get to know it fairly well.

Inside a songthaew

A songthaew is the Thai parallel to a Jeepney.  Songthaew in Thai means literally "two (song) benches (thaew)".  Riding in them is like riding in a hot tin box on the back of a pick-up truck, but it gets you to your destination quickly and cheaply.  On our trip from the airport, the driver piled the luggage on the roof and it arrived safely too.

The Marcos Family

We have all heard about Ferdinand Marcos who ruled The Philippines from 1965 until 1985, the first eight years as an elected President and the later twelve years as a dictator.

Inside the Marcos cottage

One of the first things you realize when you visit Ilocos Norte is that there is a whole Marcos clan - not just the Ferdinand and Imelda we are familair with.  Ilocos Norte is the Marcos home province.  His daughter is the current governor of this province.  His wife Imelda is currently a representative in the Philippine congress.  The family lives on.

Kathleen searching for the shoes

On Tuesday last week we visited the Marcos summer home near Laoag. Marcos was very interested in architecture and enjoyed drawing building plans.  He is credited with the design of the summer house we visited, as well as designing many public buildings and initiating many of the Philippines road network projects .  It made me think of another famous man who designed grand buildings and ordered the construction of futuristic highways in the 1930s.  The parallels are striking.

In Canada we generally do not have a positive impression of the Marcos clan.  The first thing that comes to Kathleen's mind is Imelda's shoe collection.  For me I think of the the billions of dollars squirelled away in foreign bank accounts and the shooting of Benigno Aquino (a Marcos political rival) as he stepped off the plane on his return to the Philippines from exile in 1983.  Imelda is quoted as saying, "Yes the Filipinos are living in slums and hovels. But what counts is the human spirit and the Filipinos are smiling, They smile because they are a little healthy, a little educated and a little loved."  It made Kathleen think of Marie Antoinette and the "let them eat cake" comment - out of touch with what her subjects were living through.

Filipinos and a Marcos Mannequin

And yet despite all this, many Filipinos venerate Marcos. On Wednesday we visited the Marcos museum in Batac about 20 km from Laoag.  Filipinos must be the most forgiving people in the world.  They are always prepared to see the best in someone, so around here Ferdinand Marcos is still a hero.  He is remembered for all the infrastructure projects he started here and as a war hero (WWII).  Imelda is still thought of as the "queen"  of Ilocos Norte.  The Marcos museum paints a glowing picture of the man and makes him out to be the Philippines equivalent of Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill rolled into one.

I had a hard time reconciling the two views of Marcos.  I have a lot of respect for the people I met in Ilocos Norte, but at the same time, I find it hard to ignore the history books.