I jumped from Kagoshima to Haneda and spent a week in Tokyo and Chiang Mai, living in the city for the first time in a year, leaving Japan for the first time in six years. It had been a long time since I had been in a city, but I knew it was not for me.
I needed my wallet to go everywhere and do everything, and I was bored with nothing in particular. I've had enough of concrete and electric lights for a week, and my mind and body are craving the air of the earth. I want to go to a place where the earth is there as soon as possible.
Just before I left Japan, a friend of mine introduced me to a place to stay. The Pina Paitha Home is located a bit far from the center of Pai, close to the city and the farming village, and I heard that there are cows and horses in the back alleys and right next to the houses. When I heard that, it was as if a spark of electricity went off in me and I thought, “I want to go there!”
Pai, the first destination of my trip, is a small town of about 2,000 people, about 3 hours by bus from Chiang Mai. But for some reason, it is visited by 200,000 tourists a year. It seems to have become a small tourist town where you can rent a motorcycle and immediately dive into mountains, waterfalls, and unpopular wilderness.
When the bus arrived in the center of Pai, I declined the offer of a cab at the bus stop and picked up a motorcycle cab a short walk away. The price was more than twice as much, and the motorcycle taxi was more fun. We left the city to go back the way we came by bus a little and headed for the inn. Maybe this is the place! I arrived at the place, but there was no one there. But I could smell something really good. Following my nose, I walked toward the back of the gate and found a roof and floor café with no walls, the owner, and several customers.
A Thai woman who looked like the owner greeted me with a smile as soft as the sunlight. It was well past noon, but I was starving because I had not eaten since getting on the bus in the morning, and my sense of smell was more sensitive than anything else.
I decided to take my heavy backpack off my shoulders and have a meal. I sat down on a chair in front of the hearth and was quickly offered a welcome drink of homemade pineapple and passion fruit juice. It soaked into my tired body so like a dry sponge, and the tropical, refreshing sweetness soothed my throat.
As I admired the mountain view from the café, it was not long before my meal was brought to me. On the menu was black rice, omelette, and yellow curry. I took a bite and was struck by what I felt. This woman is not just a regular! I looked twice at her in the kitchen. There was no unnatural resistance on my tongue, and it went down my throat and into my stomach like water flowing down a river, so clear that I could see the bottom of the water. When I took a break after filling up, I felt comfortable as if I had returned to my parents' house. After eating a truly delicious meal, one feels a sense of peace from the bottom of one's stomach.
Her name is Kero-chan. I don't know her real name. Her name means “frog” in Thai, so everyone calls her Kero-chan in Japanese way.
She runs an inn and a cafe under the name of “Pina Paitha Home. Pina Paitha Home means “a house where you can see and feel the nature,” and was started 20 years ago by Kero-chan and her sister Bang-chan. The property includes five cottages for rent, their own house, a café, kitchen, outdoor kitchen for cooking classes, altar, yoga space, meditation room, and a cat house.
Kero-chan and Bang-chan have a total of 20 shelter cats, and Kero-chan is a big animal lover who also has four shelter dogs. Illustrations of cats are painted all over the building, and they are all cute. Despite her name, Kero-chan loves cats so much that when she is startled, she rolls her eyes and says, “Meow! when she is startled. Bang-chan is Bang-chan, with tattoos of cats of various styles all over her body.
His sister Bang-chan is a designer and can do architecture, landscape design, and carpentry. The tropical building is based on natural materials and has a very cute, feminine, colorful interior. The cushions and beds, selected and sewn by textile artist Kelo, are all lovely, and wherever you sit, you feel comfortable with the tactile fabric touching your skin. The Pina Paita Home, built from scratch by two sisters, was like a paradise of food and healing.
Yes, I forgot one more building. Just inside the entrance gate is Kero's textile store, where she sells handmade clothes, bags, accessories, and yoga mats made of fabric.
Kelo says that she learned sewing from the Karen, a minority tribe living in northern Thailand. In addition to the inn and café, she is also involved in supporting the Karen tribe. She used to support people who were unable to stop using heroin, which is produced from poppy flowers that grow like weeds, and teach them the official Thai language, while the Karen tribe taught her folk arts such as cooking and sewing. She is still working with Karen women as a staff member of the lodge and providing social support.
There is a field on the property, with herbs, mangoes, bananas, limes, and papayas, which are essential for daily cooking, planted everywhere. Originally, this was an empty, abandoned field, but after 20 years, the trees have grown tall enough to overtake the buildings, and at the base of the trees is a compost made from the dung, leaves, and scraps of the neighbor's livestock, which is fed to the vegetables. Thanks to these efforts, the soil has grown dark and fertile, and the forest has now been transformed into a lively, lush forest. Therefore, various kinds of birds and other living creatures come to Pina Paita Home and play their beautiful voices day and night.
Growing fruits and vegetables is not the only purpose of the farm. It is also an important role of cultivation to coexist with birds, insects, fungi, and bacteria to create a more eco-friendly system. We may not be able to grow the entire planet, but we can create an environment where a greater variety of living creatures can live within our reach. Harvesting crops is not the only way to cultivate a field. The sounds of insects and birds that gather together are sometimes like the voice from the heavens, giving us many important messages and awareness.
One morning, Kero-chan taught me yoga and meditation in a dedicated spot outside. It was a relaxing and pleasant hatha yoga-based time. Eat well and move well. This is Kelo's secret to not getting sick and enjoying one's life. The wooden sign at the entrance of the cafe reads “You are What you eat...! written in hand painted letters. Eat mainly fresh vegetables every day, and occasionally fish and meat. And don't miss yoga, walks, and other physical activities. These are familiar words, but when you hear them directly from the people who practice them, you can truly agree with them.
She generally cooked three meals a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I was wide-eyed and impressed with every meal. I ate a luscious meal of spices, herbs, and vegetables, and my body was feeling great. The fact that rice was the staple food in Thailand also suited my stomach. Kero-chan is such an excellent cook that I was tempted to call her my “Big-Mom. Since childhood, she has always stood in the kitchen with her mother and helped her with the kitchen work, and she says that she learned to cook naturally.
She told me that in Thailand, it is a matter of course for women to be able to cook, and that it has been a tradition for a long time for the husband to eat his wife's cooking and judge her before getting engaged.
I thought that was a bit harsh, but I understand the desire to have a good meal at home every day. But I think it would be nice if both men and women could enjoy both cooking and eating. Of course, it's totally OK to eat out once in a while to eat something you can't usually cook or to take a break from being in the kitchen, but if I had to go out to eat every day, I'd definitely get some kind of disease.
Grow good soil, grow good vegetables, cook them, and eat them well. And return the parts you don't eat back to the soil.
Meeting and living together with Kero-chan, who practices such a simple lifestyle and who is daily enjoying the blessings of nature, reminded me that I have the same desires and senses in me.
Eating local food in a foreign land, tasting the soil, and connecting with the new earth. This is truly one of the best parts of traveling, I thought. I just want to eat the best food every day. Not haute cuisine, but heartwarming, fresh, home-cooked food.
I want to be greedy not only for food, but also to connect with Buddha by visiting temples every day as much as possible, since Thailand is a major Buddhist country. My original plan was to go to a temple further into the mountains from Pai to practice meditation, but Kero's food was too delicious for that. My planned stay is for two nights and days, until tomorrow. But after two days, my stomach was completely gripped by Kelo-chan, and not wanting to move, I decided to enjoy this paradise for one more week.
Instead of following a plan, I decided what I wanted to do from moment to moment, scene to scene. I would follow my own guidance.
