Incarnations

"Let's have a conversation. Let's have a full conversation. I want to have a conversation about my lives before. You want to hear about my lives before?"

"Sennen, first we have lots of full conversations. And you mean you had lives before this one, now?" Emily asked.

"Yes. Do you want me to tell you about them?"

"Yes, tell me about them. Was I your mommy in your past lives?"

"Yes, you were. And I want to tell you about my lives before. But I don't know exactly how to tell you about them. It's very hard to explain them…"

And then his creative stories began. But I can only assume that Sennen's sudden tales of reincarnation were inspired by the morning's visit to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep – Chiang Mai, and one of Thailand's most notable and beautiful Buddhist temples. Set high on a lush green mountainside, overlooking Chiang Mai and its valley, the green and white temple with its giant golden stupa and innumerable golden Buddha statues is a place of pilgrimage for Thais and a major tourist attraction – as well as Rambo's favorite place to run up steep staircases in "Rambo 3."

Because of its prominent position on the mountain, Sennen spotted Doi Suthep on our first day in Chiang Mai. When presented with the opportunity to ascend the mountain and see the hillside temple up close, he snapped at the opportunity and was enthusiastic to go this morning. In our previous visits, Emily and I took a public songthaew (a covered pickup truck with two rows of benches in back commonly used for public transportation in a smiliar way as city buses) and have ascended the seemingly endless steps up the hillside to the temple. With kids, Uber and the cable car seemed the way to go.

We weren't sure what to expect from the kids at Doi Suthep and figured that most likely, the beautiful view and maybe the giant golden stupa would capture their attentions best. To our astonishment, they very much wanted to understand the religious practices taking place – going into each hall of the temple and sitting or kneeling as appropriate. In one hall with many golden Buddha statues, Sennen assumed a serious demeanor as he sat silent, legs folded as he saw others do. Both were interested in chanting, he use of prayer beads, and wanted to walk clockwise around the stupa along with the Theravedic faithful.

Ailyn wondered why the Buddhist temple didn't have a bimah as the Jewish temples she's familiar with do, but she accepted that the monks were essentially akin to rabbis and that their chanting was their version of singing prayers. Sennen learned that different people have different ways of seeing and understanding the divine and that it's okay that we all have different ways of relating to God.

Afterward, our Uber driver  - who decided to work out a direct-pay deal with us on the side – took us back down the mountain to our local mall where we had lunch at the incredible food market which features hundreds of kinds of Thai street foods all conveniently and cleanly presented in one indoor space. And there over khao man gai (chicken on rice) is where Sennen's tales of reincarnation began. Later in the day, that theme recurred as the khao man gai came back to us all in the backseat of an Uber on the way to dinner.

However between lunch and the dinner that never was due to the unexpected revenge of khao man gai, Emily and I managed to get away for two-hour Thai massages in the old part of town. Along the way, I reflected how much Chiang Mai and Thailand are places of new incarnations themselves.

The Thailand I came to 15 years ago was one where you carried around your Lonely Planet and whatever wasn't in its insert maps required often confusing directions from multiple locals as you stumbled your way to your destination. Today, for better and worse, Google has eliminated the mysteries of Thai geography. Likewise, the taxi drivers who preyed on tourists by refusing to use meters and demanding ridiculously high prices to the naive, unsuspecting or just plain too-tired-to-argue have been foiled by Uber which thrives in cities like Chiang Mai and Bangkok.

Even the Thai I worked so hard to learn when living here in 2001-2002, is of less value thanks to apps like Google Translate and Speak and Translate (one our driver used with us today) which suddenly bring rudimentary communication to the masses with remarkable success.

Emily and I too have been reincarnated as parents who now approach our travels and the world in very different ways. We're staying in a modern, yuppy Airbnb house in the newer parts of Chiang Mai – which we would have abhorred in our younger years for Americanizing Thai life and destroying the natural beauty of the area. Now we're happy for the modern appliances and comfortable bedrooms. We take Uber instead of songthaews – no longer rubbing elbows with other travelers or better yet, Thais making pilgrimage as we held on and tried not to crush or be crushed by our fellow passengers.

We also question our decisions in ways we never would have before. What's safe for the kids to eat? And how far and on what kind of streets do we walk with them (I used to walk to work alongside a stagnant waterway in Bangkok my friend Jay and I referred to as Smelly Khlong)? Is it okay to take a taxi knowing there aren't enough or proper seatbelts? Or do we decide that Thailand is the place of 1970's parenting and put a child on our lap in order to get from A to B in a land where families of four often ride on the family motorcycle? Do we let our kids have the experience of riding a tuk-tuk, or insist only on enclosed cars with safety features? What of our convictions of yesteryear that Thai and other foreign taxi drivers are seasoned professionals with graduate degrees in third world driving?

We seem to have been able to retain some notion of our old selves while generally playing it safe. We usually take Ubers with seat belts, but once in a while, a kid has to be able to enjoy a Tuk-Tuk, or why come to Thailand at all? And what is Thailand and especially a city like Chiang Mai without street food?  So it was that last night, after a dinner of some of the city's finest street foods at the Bumbling Buri Night Market – and in light of the fact that we would have had to cross some very busy streets to get to a place where Uber would pick us up – we decided that the thrill of a Tuk Tuk would make the kids happy and get us home quickly. And so we zipped through the night with our arms around the happy, full bellies of the kids on our laps who were experiencing Thailand with the thrill Emily and I did on our first trips here.