In the Krabi airport

I'm writing you all from the Krabi airport, another strange reminder of the connectedness of the electronic world.

The airport waiting lounge is a great microcosmic experience of Thailand, full of beach bums, honeymooners, monks, muslim clerics, vacationing missionaries and burned out hippies, not to mention the omnipresent Thai people who simultaneously make our presence possible and try to make some sort of living by letting us pretend our lives would be somehow different if we lived here instead of back home.

Philosophically, of course, we all know that life would be the same here... that all the pettiness and complexities of life would catch up with us here rather than loitering back home, smoking cigarettes on our front porches. But emotionally we think that maybe, somehow, this time we can outrun all our problems, that we won't load them up like the seventeen pieces of luggage we brought with us, that this time we can make a clean break and live a life of abundance and joy without questions or worries.

The problem being that all these things, we carry them around like tattoos. We can't escape them any more than we could escape our skin, or breathing, or the sky. And the remedy, well, He's as present (more so) than our problems... at home, in Thailand or India or Lithuania or Croatia or Russia or any other place you could name (or can't name).

Tomorrow is our last full day in Thailand... in Bangkok. As much as I'd like it to be otherwise it feels more like a stop on the journey home than another day of vacation. But so be it. Home needs tending and there are things and people there I wouldn't trade just for beaches and swimming pools. Although, if they wanted to join us here, I might be persuaded....

Winter by Jon Foreman

Jon Foreman's Winter, the second of a planned four EP release, came out last month. I managed to download it from our hotel in Bangkok and I've been listening to it here in Krabi, enjoying the irony of listening to the Winter album while wearing shorts and staring out over the Tha Lane Bay.

One of the nice things about Jon's seasonal releases is that I wasn't tired of "Fall" yet... I was still listening to it nearly every day. So having some more thought-provoking, enjoyable music is a treat.

I particularly like three of the songs on the new EP:

1) "Learning How to Die." See the post below for lyrics. This song gave me a deeper insight into the "Fall" album, actually. I realized (maybe I'm late to the party here) that the theme of Fall wasn't only the season, but also seems to be associated with THE Fall of humanity. It has a lot of songs about things not working out, temptation, giving in to temptation, and grief. Winter seems to be dealing with the fallout from Fall, just like the seasons, of course. "Learning How to Die" shows the inevitability of our separation from one another, the end of all living things and the necessity of embracing that in our current lives. It's beautifully written, lyrically and musically.

2) "White as Snow" takes the words of David, King of Israel that he wrote when he had committed adultery and murder. Jon sings it with a lot of feeling, and you can feel real remorse about the past and hope for the future. Again, this is one of the results of our Fall, that sometimes we turn to God for forgiveness, hope, repentance and restoration.

3) "Somebody's Baby." This was, to me, the most powerful and affecting song on the album. It's a love ballad to a homeless woman. It tells her story in a way designed to make you love her and wish you could step into her life and help her start over.

One of the things I've always appreciated about Jon Foreman (and Switchfoot for that matter) is that they aren't satisfied to keep doing the same songs over and over. What I mean is, each album has a new sound and pushes into new territory stylistically and thematically. This EP is no exception.

There you have it. If I knew enough surfer language I would say something profound like "This album is epic." But I don't. So I'll just say, I really like it. And I think you will like it, too. And I'm looking forward to Spring.

Learning How to Die Lyrics by Jon Foreman

Here are Jon's handwritten lyrics for "Learning How To Die." Enjoy.

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Last Full Day at the Beach

Today is our last full day at the beach. We're planning to go to Ao Nang and then take a boat across to another beach. It should be fun. We're so completely over jet lag that the thought of going back to America seems harder than setting up a new home here.

I know what you're thinking, "It's about time Mikalatos got off the beach and back to his usual shenanigans so I can feel superior and powerful whenever I read his blog, instead of feeling jealous."

Perhaps this will make you feel better: Yesterday I caught a lizard to show to the kids. Then it jumped onto my hand, ran up my arm, leapt from my collar to my neck and then ran down my shirt. The children nearly broke themselves laughing. I had to take my shirt off to rid myself of the lizard.

MORAL: If a giant ever catches you, run into his clothing.

Terror on Hong Island

Today the family jumped into a truck, then jumped into a longboat and motored out to the islands.

Our first stop was Koh Hong, a beautiful island and a Thai national park. We swam, snorkled and built pristine white sand castles.

After a while, my wife Krista, my daughter Z, my parents and my father-in-law decided to go on a hike through the jungle. Krista's mom and our other daughter, A, stayed on the beach to play.

About halfway down the trail, Krista and my Mom turned back. We continued on, climbing over fallen trees and swinging on the occasional vine. Z seemed unaccountably frightened the whole time and kept asking if we could turn back. No, I assured her, there was nothing to be afraid of here.

Toward the end of the trail we came across a boat graveyard in the middle of the island, remnants of the tsunami. The splintered boats had ivy and jungle vegetation creeping over them, another testimony to nature's power.

The trail looped back to the starting point and we returned to our spot on the beach to discover that Krista and Mom had not yet returned. It seemed odd that we would get there before them... they had left well before the trail's halfway point.

I went back to the trailhead and started down the trail again. Perhaps one of them had turned their ankle and were waiting for someone to come along and help the get back to the beach. I reached the place where they had turned back and there was no sign of them. I walked a little deeper into the jungle and I heard a high and distant, "Haaaallo!" that sounded unmistakeably like my Mother's voice.

It's just a bird, I told myself. Or an animal. I stopped and listened. "Haaaallo!" I was almost certain it was my mother, but I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I ran ahead on the path, thinking they must be hurt. Why wasn't Krista calling out also? Could she be hurt or unconscious? It seemed unlikely, but maybe they had been kidnapped? "Haaaaallo!"

No, no, I told myself. That must be a bird or something. They are safely back on the beach, I'm sure.

I had noticed a short cut through the jungle and back to the beach. I ran along it and came out on the beach long enough to see that they still hadn't returned. That must have actually been my mother calling out, although why she didn't call for help or shout our names eluded me. I ran back along the jungle path, moving quickly. I stopped where I had heard the earlier cries, but now all I heard were the sounds of the jungle. Birds calling, distant longboats, crashing as animals forced their way through the underbrush.

I made a last trek back toward camp, watching the undergrowth for signs of someone being pulled off the path and into the thick tangle of vegetation. I watched for signs of a scuffle on the red clay path. I bent and studied suspect branches and broken twigs.

I stopped. An enormous lizard, easily four feet long, walked the path beside me. A monitor lizard. It saw me and slinked back into the jungle. A few feet farther and I saw another one, just as my father and father-in-law came up the path to tell me that Krista and Mom had returned to "camp."

They had come across the lizards a few moments after they left us. One of the reptiles stood in the path, defiantly watching them and refusing to move. After a short time the ladies decided to try to catch up with us, but we were too far along. By the time I went into the jungle looking for them, they were farther along the path and Mom was shouting HAAAAALLO hoping that it would scare off any native wildlife (rather than terrifying her son).

In the end, I don't think anyone appreciated how genuinely terrified I felt for those ten minutes. All the worst case scenarios went through my head, and yes, some of those were informed by the fact that I watch the television show LOST. I have to admit, none of the worst case scenarios in my head involved monitor lizards. But some of them involved a troop of monkeys, and at least one involved deranged pirate-like people.

Everyone's safely home now. Including, so far as I know, the monitor lizards.

Mmmm... Thai food!

Here's the dinner our staff made last night.


















And here's my favorite dessert:

Sweet Thailand Home

Here's our home in Thailand. The house in the background is the one we're staying in, and that's the bay we look out on. I'm sitting in our courtyard right now listening to the frogs, lizards and insects croak, chirp and hum, and the fishermen's boats motoring in from the bay.

A Feast For A King

As you can see, the King does not have to comb his hair before dinner. NO! In fact, he doesn't have to put on a shirt unless he really wants to. He can do whatever he wants.

Here you can see me about to feast upon home-made Thai goodness. We were ordering out but the women who work here said it would be much cheaper if we just let them make it for us. So we do, which means we're a little less certain what will show up each night. But it has been excellent. Yes, that is a giant pile of satay you see before me. ITS NAME IS SATAY!

Tonight we had satay, cashew chicken, a thick noodle dish similar to rad nah with beef (one theory is that the head of the slaughtered cow we saw today was the remnants of what was necessary for making our dinner), steamed vegetables and then for dessert we had mango sticky rice, jack fruit, coconut cream with corn and then ice cream. We all ate too much and have plenty for lunch tomorrow.

His name is SATAN!

Z reads pretty much everything put in front of her these days. You can't leave her alone in a room with books or she will curl up somewhere and shut out everything except the world of the book. You can see in the previous post that she falls asleep each night reading.

Right now she's reading "Son of the Black Stallion" and she asked me to get it for her to read before she went to sleep. I went to get it and noticed as I walked past the pool that the tagline read, "His name is SATAN!"

Well, that's curious, I thought. So I asked Z, why is the black stallion's colt named Satan?

She's not sure. The colt has fiery eyes, but she doesn't think that's the reason.

I guess this is why parents start reading their kids books before the kids read them. I don't have time to read that many books. I'm sure Son of the Black Stallion is fine, I just thought that was an uproariously funny tagline.

It would be a great tagline for our sequel blog:

SON OF THE BURNING HEARTS REVOLUTION
ITS NAME IS SATAN!

Jet lag makes bed time easy

It's so nice when the kids are jet lagged but we aren't.

I got one eye on you, and one on my escape route

This little fella was making a ruckus in the tree in our front yard. I ran over with Krista's camera, which startled him into action. I managed to get this shot before he slipped away.

Further evidence that children adapt better than adults cross-culturally

Krista, Z and I tromped over the hill in the heat of the day to visit the little village on the other side. As we walked I noticed the head of a cow hanging from a tree, a hook through its nose and gore dripping from its neck.

Me: Look, Z, there's a cow's head hanging in that tree.

Z: Looks like someone's about to have a party.

LOST in thailand

We realized today that our home here in Krabi has disturbing similarities to my favorite television show.

We're in this mysterious yet beautiful remote location. We're well cared for, but there's a feeling that we can't escape in some way. Then today, my Dad and I packed up and went on an exploratory walk around "the island" to see if we could find a town or anything.

We found a strange underground medical facility where it appears they have been genetically modifying polar bears to live in tropical environments. Also a big smoke cloud monster thingy chased us.

When I "get a chance" to upload some of Krista's pictures I'll show you what the view is like from our house here. It's amazing.

Okay, gotta go. I have to go type in the code and press "the button."

Krabi

We reunited with the kids and our parents today in Bangkok... played in the pool, ate, rode on a plane and arrived at our isolated luxury house in Krabi. We're probably the only foreigners for about 20 kilometers, and there is pretty much nothing nearby. But it's gorgeous. Our beach chairs look out on giant freestanding rocks in the bay, and fishermen check their nets as the sun sets. There's a little pool in the center of the house area, and each of the bedrooms is arranged around it in seperate rooms. We were a little concerned about how isolated it seemed out here, but then on a whim I checked for a wireless signal, and there it is. So I guess that we can contact english-speaking civilization for help if we need it. Watch this space for desperate cries for help. :)

I think it's going to be great, actually. Really relaxing and fun, and it's great to be together with my parents and Krista's parents and the kids. It's a great blessing to have parents that all like each other.

In other news, our daughter A lost her first tooth tonight. She called me to say it had turned sideways in her mouth, I reached in and plucked it out and there was much rejoicing. She's officially growing up, I guess, and that little missing-tooth grin we've come to consider normal for Z seems to be catching!

A certainty of his presence

Today was a Very Good day. I spent it with Krista, traveling from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. We arrived (with our luggage) and then found a taxi easily, slipped into our excellent hotel, ate an exceptional meal, lounged in the pool, and then explored the river using the public taxi boats (more like buses than taxis) and then eventually made our way over to "the sky train" and hit the Thai mall, ate dinner, snagged some mango sticky rice from a grocery store and made our way home again by train and boat. You can see pictures from our day on Krista's blog.

Five times today I felt a certainty of God's presence. They came in small moments, measured in seconds not minutes, but they came like the sun bursting out from behind the clouds.

The first came as I read Dave Eggers' "What is the What" while we sat on lounge chairs in the pool (the chairs are ankle deep in the water). I won't go into detail (I want to share more when I finish reading it), other than to say that the book, which deals with the Sudanese diaspora in a powerful way, had a page where the main character reflects on suffering and God. In that moment, I felt God's presence, for those ten seconds when I read two paragraphs.

The second came as Krista and I sat on a boat-bus and the cool wind came in off the river. Krista stood up to take a picture, and for a moment I felt a deep satisfaction, as if I were not a foreigner, and our life seemed full and wonderful... taking a day in Thailand to ride a taxi boat, waiting for our children and parents to join us, the beautiful river and the Thai people huddled around us like family, like friends, like fellow travelers.

The third came on another boat at the end of the night, when the sun had set and we headed for home again. Again, a moment of satisfaction, a sense of blessing and a realization that this satisfaction -- could it be peace? -- came to me as a gift from him.

The fourth came as Krista showed me her pictures from our day. In one of them the sun explodes through a pagoda, reducing it to shadow soaked in sunshine. I saw in that moment a metaphor for this culture, I hope a vision of the future, as God bursts through the things that men have made for worship and shows his own might and glory, more spectacular than a thousand gold-encrusted wats.

And then the fifth, as I sprawled on the bed reading the story of Jesus washing the disciple's feet, I read the words, "Do you understand what I have done for you?" No. I don't realize it, not really. The night before we left for Thailand, Krista had a second miscarriage. We hadn't told anyone she was pregnant, and then hours before we left for Thailand we lost the baby. I think this palpable, heart-breaking reminder of the broken world we live in made Jesus' words to his followers after washing their feet stand out to me. I love everything about this passsage. The ridiculous, almost nonsensical description of Christ's motivations, the violation of social norms, the uncommonly straightforward exposition. Knowing that he came to serve us and save us in the midst of my loss makes it more profound to me. And then, "Now that I, your Lord and Master have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet."

And there it is. All told, it might be fifty seconds out of the day that I sensed his presence, fifty seconds where I felt him near me.

And for today, that was enough.

homeless dogs, dressed real nice

We couldn't help but notice the packs of wild dogs running around in Chiang Mai. Our friends said it's quite a problem for early morning joggers. We also couldn't help but notice that many of these homeless dogs actually wear clothes.

Turns out that it's a tradition of the Thai people to dress dogs up in their cast off clothing. So you see dogs running around in shirts of various qualities and colors. We saw one yesterday wearing an American flag handkerchief.

I have to say, this is yet another reason to really love Thailand.

It used to be Ugly Americans, now it's just Fat Americans

Here's a little excerpt of a conversation near us at the airport lounge this morning in Chiang Mai:

Man: That was a good Boo-fay we ate at for breakfast this morning. I am FULL!

He rubs his belly like a big white happy Buddha.

Woman: Look, they have little ham sandwiches here in the lounge.

Man: That sounds GREAT!

Yesterday's Menu

Breakfast: fried rice, a croissant and some potatoes

Lunch: Curry, some sort of chicken curry soup thing, fried rice, watermelon shake.

Snack: Mango shake

Dinner: Basil chicken, garlic chicken, cashew chicken, watermelon shake, tom ka (soup) followed by ma dang (pork soup) and then some honey roti (fried pancake with sweetened condensed milk, butter and honey). Mmmmmmmm.

Thai food is good.

they hate vanilla

Something to know about Thailand is that they are not fond of vanilla. At least, not in milkshakes and things. You can still get vanilla ice cream, I think. But shakes have to be banana shakes or something. But I did have a nice carmel frappacino ice thing which is like a carmel milkshake. Yum.

We're in Chiang Mai now, and nestled into our nice little hotel room. We're about to go out and have a thai lunch. Of course I will report back on all the tasty food we eat. We're about a block and a half from the night market, too, so the plan is to eat mango sticky rice we buy from the street vendors every day. I can give up vanilla for a few weeks if I get mango sticky rice every day, no problem.

Breakfast = Tuna and Butter Sandwich

We arrived safely in Bangkok and this morning we jump on another quick flight up to Chiang Mai. Thanks to the fine people at the Star Alliance we had a breakfast and internet access here in the "Royal Silk Lounge." I had a tuna and butter sandwich, nicely complimented by a cheese and butter sandwich.

It's nice to be back in the land of smiles. I'll update you all as I'm able.