Monkeys or frogs?

For those who might be interested in the potential monkey population of my adventures in Thailand: I realized this weekend that the odd hooting sounds I can hear in the bamboo forest over the back fence at my house here might POSSIBLY be gibbons. They might also be frogs, the jury is out.

On a more urban note, here's a street scene from Chiang Mai, market streets near the Ping River.

My work is picking up, realizing that I have only two more weeks. I spent yesterday afternoon making a Thailand map, which turned out super duper cool (if I do say so myself). I was inspired by the awesome maps that are sprinkled throughout the Robert Jordan books, fine pen and ink work with textures and little images in the corners.

Dust and diesel

"Dust and diesel rise like incense from the road..."

So sang Canadian songwriter Bruce Cockburn, speaking of Nicaragua, but referring to the heady bouquet found along any developing country's roads. I might change it to something a little less romantic, possibly regarding carbon monoxide poisoning and getting really dizzy on a ride down a winding mountain road in a open-backed bus.

"Incense" is a word I will save for the sweet smoke drifting from temples and spirit houses. Walking down the street in Chiang Mai, incense smoke mixes with sweet plumerias, spicy pork satay, passing traffic, open sewers, and strawberries from the market stands.

Climbed up Doi Suthep a few days ago, to visit the huge wat above the city and also the national park at the top. I've never seen so much gold leaf in one place.

So many little legs

In case you've been wondering what I'm doing in Thailand besides eating and touring sunny beautiful places, here's a scan of some of my field guide illustrations. These are various families of invertebrates, mainly the larval phase. Always wanted to know the difference between dragonflies and damselflies, haven't you? The adult and larvae of each are over on the right.

Don't sit on the...hedgehog?

Monday morning on the other side of the world from my usual location, and I'm about to start drawing some fish for a field guide. But first, here's a little gem from my weekend adventures. On Saturday, we took a field trip to a "botanical garden" that was more of a "botanical amusement park." Very beautiful, many orchids and rare palms, but also extensive exuberant topiary and a mini-zoo where you could hand-feed ostriches. This sign was in the section full of small woodland creatures made of boxwood, and I can understand the temptation for great photo ops with the topiary.

Laura and I spent most of Sunday walking around inside the moat in the old part of Chiang Mai, checking out lots of peaceful, ornate wats and playing at tourist at the Sunday Walking Street (a street market of several blocks, very fun shopping) where I gleefully supported the local economy and upgraded my "I'm an artist" wardrobe at the same time. There was some excellent art as well, and gorgeous handmade tribal textiles.

Omnivorous

One of the pleasures of travel for me is eating everything interesting that comes across my path. I thought you might be interested in seeing the things I brought home from the market a few days ago. Starting at the top and going clockwise, there's taro chips, dragonfruit, rice cookies, some kind of coconut milk and sweet fruit custard wrapped in pandanus leaves, sweet sticky rice and banana wrapped in some other kind of leaf, a dumpling-like savory of greens in a rice wrapper, and peanuts with roasted kaffir lime leaves. All were very tasty, although I have to say that dragonfruit looks a lot more exciting than it tastes (I mean, it's good but not so extravagant as you might imagine).

It's nice that this sort of exotic fare counts as eating locally right now. Speaking of, I'm finally getting around to reading Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma," and am currently completely appalled by the ridiculousness and non-sustainability of the food industry in the U.S. I've been coming to realize over the last few years that processed food is very sketchy, and now I see why. Anyone who is interested in anything to do with agricultural systems, the evils of high fructose corn syrup, or finding out if you are what you eat....definitely pick this book up. The part about the Chicken McNugget was particularly eye-opening.

I mean, like, ya know...

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Check this out! My inner font geek loves this.

Waterfall and morning walk

Views of the Mork Fah waterfall in the national park we went to this past weekend. Was actually a little chilly for swimming, but lovely for splashing around.




This is me and my friend Laura, the woman who instigated this whole trip to Thailand business. We've known each other for a number of years, and she's one of the most brillant and amusing people I know.

It's morning here. Slept like a baby last night again, and am starting to enjoy the walk in to the ISDSI office. There's a little vegetarian restaurant that has tasty interesting snacks (today I picked up some mung beans in coconut milk for my mid-morning snack), there's a beautiful view of the golden temple spires of the wat at the top of Doi Suthep (the mountain near Chiang Mai), there's an antiques store full of exotic-looking whatnots, and the traffic is becoming less shocking to my western sensibilities.

Buses, Bamboo, and Botox

Oh my stars, still so tired early in the evening (it's early in the morning for New York), so all I'll say is that today I learned you can get Botox on the third floor of the mall here. Drew some bamboo construction techniques for Echo too. Here's a shot taken from the back of a rot dang ("red vehicle"), one of the small buses in Chiang Mai.

Gai = chicken

Sawatdee kaa!

So far that's one of my new Thai phrases, a basic hello. I can also say "chicken" and almost count to five. I arrived yesterday morning in Chiang Mai after a remarkably easy, if rather long, journey. Two highlights were a few hours in Tokyo, and a lovely foot massage in Bangkok. Arrival in Chiang Mai was right on time, and my luggage actually arrived. A super nice security guard let me use his phone to reach my friend Laura, who was wandering around looking for me at the airport, and then we were on our way. The time zone is 12 hours ahead of my normal east coast reality. Wheeeee! In a few more days I expect to stop wanting to pass out in the late afternoon.

Chiang Mai is an old city in the northwest of the country (although the name means "new city"), surrounded by mountains and including an inner city circled by a moat and fragments of old wall. It's too early for many impressions, except for lots of color and walking and extremely tasty food absolutely everywhere. I met the folks I'll be working with and am excited about my projects (field guide illustrations, etc). Here's a photo from a wat (temple) we walked through today, with monk robes drying in the background.

Etch-a-sketch

Here's the first art of the new year.

My awesome arty pal Ben was over last night with a stash of etching plates, and we spent a few hours making small sketchy drypoint etchings and running them through my neglected press. The results were interesting, I found that this wee plate printed best if it wasn't wiped very clean. Inspired by winter trees and flocks of birds, obviously.

My packing for Thailand is going well, which is a very good thing because I leave Ithaca tomorrow. Now back to work on one last client project...

Tsunamis in my dreams

I dream about the ocean a lot. Usually I am on the shore, watching the horizon for big waves and feeling very pleased as they wash in on the beach, often right to my feet, or over the building I'm in but in an exciting and friendly way. I love those dreams, they're full of well-being and beauty and adventure. It's a little like the fishbone imagery I keep painting...someday I'll figure out what it means but meanwhile I just know that it's significant.

But last night I went to sleep after hearing about the earthquake in Haiti, which devastated Port-au-Prince. I lived in Haiti briefly several years ago, where the lessons in poverty and positivity would break even the hardest person. I made sure that my friends who live there were safe (they are, thank God)...but there are so many other people, and so many struggles the country faces already.

I dreamed about tsunamis. As usual, the waves were giant on the horizon and I was happy to see them, but then it became apparent that these waves were very large and unstoppable and without mercy. They were not going to play around my feet, they were going right over me and taking me with them. It was very scary.

A week of winter

Ran out for a late afternoon cross-country ski today up at Hammond Hill. We've had a lot of snow fall in the last week, and it's been cold enough that all the fluffiness is still on the trees. The sun was just hitting the horizon and I had to stop and stare for a few minutes at the beautiful solitude. Trail conditions were good once I got off the well-beaten paths, the last zippy tree-dodging downhill was very very sweet.

I know these trails winter and summer, having grown up here XC skiing from the tender age of 4 (yup, that's right....just try keeping up with me!) and riding them on my mountain bike when the snow is gone. It's important to me to know a forest (or at least a grove of trees if living in a more urban situation) where I feel welcome and at home. I've lived in a lot of places, and in each of those places I bonded with some patch of nature. In Oregon it's the trail by the ranger station next to the river; in Florida, the scrubby trails behind the farm. In Santa Cruz the amazing redwood forest behind the campus; in Michigan all the trails around Au Sable through the beautiful north woods. Back in college on the outskirts of Philadelphia, I retreated to the patch of woods on the campus when I needed to clear my head (there's a big road through that forest now).

(Hmmmm, this is all leading down a longer path than expected, perhaps I'll pick up on the theme of our need for solitude and nature again soon but not right now because I need to get some sleep and am verging on incoherence).

I head to Thailand in a week, so am trying to fit in as much winter as possible before arriving in the tropics. Will be maximizing my ski potential.