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On the Streets of Chiang Mai (DEC.
2, 2015)
I was
photographing the Chiang Mai Loy Krathong parade when it began to
rain. Some of us ran for cover under the overhang of a nearby cafe.
I stood there with my heavy camera pack strapped to my back and my tripod
leaning on my legs for a while before I found a place in between two
motorcycles to set my tripod, resting my pack on one of the seats, my hand still clinging to the strap making
sure no one would knock my camera and lenses to the cement floor. In
time the rain slowed and people began walking the street again. I
decided it would be safe, pulling the plastic cover out from
underneath, and then over the camera pack, returning to the street. I was already near the end of the parade, I could walk the last two
hundred meters and decide whether any of the floats were spectacular
enough to justify exposing my camera to the small amount of rain
that was still falling. Perhaps it was
time to return to the sanctuary of my room. I did find, however,
that I really admired the last float and soon began photographing again, working my
way back up and past the cafe.
A hundred meters past the cafe I suddenly realized that I no longer
had my tripod with me. Two emotions rushed forth at the same time
and dualed each other for the space that was in my chest: 1) panic,
that just that easily, I had lost a very valuable asset of my work
2) optimism, that I might still recover this critical tool. I raced
back only to find a very deserted looking cafe. Instead of people
crowding under the overhang dodging the rain, it was closed and one
lone lady stood holding a baby. She hadn't seen my tripod, so off I
raced down the street to where that last spectacular work of art had been.
Immediately my prospects looked bleak. If a crowd of people
had still been here I would have had a better chance of recovering
my "ka dang", but the street and sidewalk were disappointingly empty,
and it was easy to see there was no undisturbed tripod resting
anywhere along the way. Many participants in the parade had seen me
photographing their floats, some of which I had photographed
extensively, and at one of the beautiful displays an assistant had
even held my tripod for a few moments while I snapped away with both
hands on my camera. With a sense of extreme urgency I hurried up the
parade route, from float to float, talking to anyone who was
available, explaining my situation and handing out my phone number.
I hoped that perhaps one of the participants had seen me leave it
behind and had stashed it away for me. I also stopped and reported
the incident to a policeman. He said that if anyone had found it, they would turn it in at the table on the corner, and after
getting on his radio and checking with a few fellow officers he
reported that there was no sign of a tripod. A mile or so later the parade was fizzling out and it was
getting late. I slowed down to take a few last photos and headed
back to my bed. Now I had a dilemna. I had already paid 1,100 baht
for a tour to Doi Inthanon first thing in the morning. Should I go,
or should I stay in town and try to find my tripod? I was scheduled
to be picked up at 8:15 a.m.
 At 8:00 a.m. I returned to the
little cafe and found an elderly lady outside the door. I explained
that I had lost my tripod and asked if she had seen it. She said she
hadn't, and when I tried to ask her husband, she seemed irritated
and blurted out that he hadn't seen it either. I wondered why she
was so easily irritated and why she didn't let her husband speak for
himself. Should I be suspicous of her? Ten minutes later I did climb
into the van for Doi Inthanon, but immediately pulled out my moblie
phone and called the Tourist police reporting my loss and answering
a whole sheet full of questions. That evening, after my trip, I
returned to the cafe, but found it still closed. I made up some
flyers with a photo of a tripod and had 200
copies printed. In the morning I visited every open shop along that
stretch of road, talked with the owners, and left my flyer with it's
offer of a 1000 baht reward. At about 2:00 p.m. I returned to my room
for an hour. My pack, which included a heavy telephoto lens, was
punishing my back and shoulder muscles and I needed a break. By 3:00
p.m. I headed out again to three different police stations and at
the end of the day returned past the cafe again...still
closed.
Let's face it, either my tripod had been picked up by a
benevolent person trying to keep it for me, or it had been picked up
by a thief hoping to sell it. It had been two days now, and it still
hadn't showed up in the municipality's lost and found, so Sunday
morning I decided to check the used photography shops to see if a
thief had tried to quickly unload it. I walked to a nearby internet shop
and Googled and searched until I found that most of them were closed
until Monday. I did nevertheless catch a songtaew to a few stores,
and seeing what they had there reinforeced my fear that replacing a tripod as big,
sturdy, and versatile as mine wasn't going to be easy here in
Thailand.
I just finished recording my first original song, and I have already
started creating a video for it. I desperately needed my tripod to
finish my music video. I needed to get this song moving. Should I
wait long enough to see if my tripod shows up? If I can't find a
good tripod here in Thailand should I order one from overseas and
pay the 100 percent import tax on it? Or should I pay money
for a lesser tripod knowing I won't be happy with it and will
replace it when I get to the U.S, anyway?
I needed to check out
of my room by noon. I couldn't extend this another day. There are
one
million people in Chiang Mai. A few hundred flyers wasn't likely to
reach the person who had my tripod. And who reads posters on
electric poles anyway? Certainly not the people driving down the
street. And it seems that people walking down the street are either
looking at merchandise, looking at their phones, or talking to
their friends. I planned to return to Bangkok and plaster the Chiang
Mai papers and web sites with postings, but even that would only be
a small drop in a huge sea. At 10:00 a.m. I decided to say a little prayer. I
didn't know if it would help me find my tripod, but I knew it
certainly couldn't hurt. And at the very least it might do me some good. I
found that the simple little prayer helped me change my attitude,
and made me realize that I needed to shift my attitude even more. I
had gotten myself into a state of mind that that I'm sure many sales people will
find quite familiar, after so many people had responded to me with
"No, I haven't seen it." I found myself over and over thinking "I'm
wasting my time." However, I needed to be positive. I needed to
reach out to my tripod, call it to me, visualize it coming to me,
magnetise it to me. Psycocybernetics would teach me that,
metaphysics would teach me that, and if indeed their is a super
consiousness that we are all connected to, I needed to reach into
that consciousness. At 11:45 a.m. I began walking to the coffee shop
for one last try, and on the way there I posted more flyers on electric
poles. As I came in view of the coffee shop a new ray of hope
reached toward me...the door was open. Indeed I entered and found a
different lady than the elderly one I had spoken to outside two days
earlier. This lady was quite friendly and cordial as I explained the
loss of my tripod and handed her a flyer. Unfortunately, however,
she had not seen or heard anything about it. As I left I found one last pole
to post a flyer on and while I was brushing glue onto the pole a
young man called me and motioned for me to follow him. I wondered if
he had heard something about my tripod, or perhaps he and his father
wanted to scold me for putting up a poster in front of their
business. Honestly, I am not a litterbug. I never throw even the
smallest piece of paper on the ground or out the window. But in the
cities of Thailand every power pole is already covered with posters,
and under the circumstances one more seemed quite justified. As we
headed back in the direction of the cafe I exhaled a breath of emphatic
elation as he clarified that he not only had seen my tripod but had
it in his possession! He said that he did not know that I was
looking for it until his mother had just now showed him the flyer.
So yes, there it was stashed away in the cafe which had remained
closed for two days. I handed him the 1000 baht I had advertised on
the poster, which seemed small compared to the joy of getting my
tripod and tripod head back fully intact. I could return home with this burden lifted, no
more looking, no more wondering what to do next, and best of all, no
more treking all over the city in the heat and exhaust with a camera
pack weighing heavy on my shoulders. Do you believe in the power of
prayer? Some will say this is evidence that prayer works, others
will say that the timing was merely coincidental. But what I do know
for sure is that most people are kind and will be helpful in your
time of need. I realize that some of you won't believe me, perhaps
growing up in a culture where things are different. I, on the other
hand, have been lucky during the course of my life to live in
some good places that are full of benevolent people. Thailand
certainly is one of those places. If you would like more evidence
that most people are honest and helpful, below I am
conveniently reposting some of my earlier stories so that you don't
have to search for them.
Pay It Forward! ( JULY 23, 2014 )
A couple of my Bangkok friends went back to the states
to get married. They were eating dinner in downtown Oakland,
Califonia, when she lost $1600 in wedding money. She describes the
next day as a "brutal day of panic and sadness" until the restaurant
called to announce that the night manager had found her money and
locked it up for her. She writes,
"What sort of a beautiful, honest, lovely human being finds $1600 in
cash and returns it?!? Well, his name is Reid and he is amazing. To
say that my faith in humanity has been restored is an
understatement. I think I cried more from finding out about this
truly good deed than I did when I lost the money. If you ever go to
Luka's, please find Reid and give him another hug for me (he is
probably worn out from all the ones I already gave him.) THANK YOU.
I will honestly pay it forward." In answer to her question, she
doesn't have to look far to find that kind of a person. One of her
friends writes that Mary does so many good things for others that her good deeds were bound to
come back to her one day. I like to believe that there are a lot of
people who would have returned her $1600. I once lost my wallet and
a Budweiser driver called me to return it. Several times I have left
my bag behind in Bangkok restaurants and each time I have returned to find it
in good hands. One
morning years ago, while I was still studying at the university, I
left my tennis racket inside the front doors of a 13 story building.
It was probably the busiest spot on campus. Yet, when I returned in
the evening my tennis racket was right where I had left it... on a coffee table next to one
of the sofas, emerged in all of the traffic! A
thousand people must have walked with arm's reach of my racket that
day, and yet not one grabbed what belonged to a struggling student
trying to work his own way through school. (And there were no video
cameras or securtiy guards.)
Honesty in Bangkok (July 31,
2015)
Today I road my bicycle to the basketball court. I
haven't used my i-pad for quite awhile, but I still carry the bag as
a convenient place to keep my reading glasses, a few
notecards, a little money, and a few other items. This thin little
bag I hung on the frame that supported the basketball rim, not
likely to be stolen because even if I were to play a game it would
be pretty easy to keep an eye on. It turns out that the most likely
culprit to steal my bag was my own inattention to detail. After
finishing up on the basketball court I stopped in a grocery store to
buy a coconut and as I reached for my bag I suddenly realized that
it must still be hanging on the basketball court. I ran out the door
and raced my bicycle the kilometer back to the basketball court to
see the basketball standard bare...no little black bag. No! It had
disappeared so quickly! A man walked out from under the shade trees
toward me pointing to the open door of the house across the street
and telling me that they had kept the bag for me. As he approached
with me he woke the elderly lady who had started to fall into a mid
afternoon nap on a cot just inside the front door. She must have
been sleeping with my bag, as she didn't even need to get up to hand
it to me. I felt a sense of relief as I thanked them profusedly and
rode off again with a confirmation of how good people can be. We
always hear so much about the bad, but I still believe that most
people are quite good. I have had many experiences that confirm
this.
Honest Again (Nov. 3, 2015)
The other night I found a real fine looking leather
coin purse at the night market, which I bought for mere baht on the
dollar. I immediately slipped my keys and key card into the purse
and into my pocket, and continued strolling through the market. One
of the merchandise owners in front of me called out "Hey, you!"
which has always rubbed me a bit rude, but he was pointing behind
me, and when I looked, the woman who had sold me the coin purse had
run me down and was handing me my wallet. I hadn't even realized I
had left it behind. I'm usually pretty careful about my wallet, and
this night it had my driver's license, credit card, and more than
the usual amount of bills. It would have been more convenient for
her to wait for me to come back, although who knows how many hours
that may have taken, and perhaps the market would have closed in the
mean time. Leaving her shop she chose to run me down and return my
wallet immediately. Once again Thais demonstrated to me that most
people are honest and helpful.
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