Buddha Buddha...佛陀臉龐。

Sleeping on the upper berth of a late-night train from Bangkok to Chiang-mai, I was drifting in transparent. The sound of raindrops in rhythm with the slow-moving train, a gentle lullaby made me asleep. Leaving away from the chaos of backpackers and noises on Khao-san Road, air seem to be fresher as the scenery slipping outside train windows becoming greener and more alive.

No one expect my arrival. There was nobody awaits at the end of platform except the enthusiastic tuk-tuk drivers.

Tour guide friends always tell me Chiang-mai is the true beauty of Thailand, where people get the glimpse of a buddha's face. I was here two years ago. It is indeed a very beautiful city. The color of the old buildings, spicy smell coming out from the street vendors, the river surrounds the moat area, and the quiet but humming sound hidden in all the wats in every corner. It's not a city you travel and walk away from. It's a city travelers bury their memories, and reborn when they visit again years later. Nothing will change much. It will be the same street, same smell, same sweet vibration, same pink flowers blossom in an unknown trees, same monks in bright orange color walking by, same sadness, same relief. In this lost Eden of lonely adventurers.

At night I walk into Night Bazaar Building with lines of antique shops. All shops filled with buddhas in different sizes, material, colors, forms and years. The most beautiful thing for traveler's hungry eyes. Streets and shops are quiet due to the low season, shop owners seem pay less attention to someone like me. One buddha next to another, in such harmony and peace one can image. It's a spiritual experience to walk pass by these glass windows, or walk into a group statues. All the buddhas, they are all in the absolute silence, yet waiting and leaning to listen and speak. The expressions in each buddha, the eyes, the smile or solitude make me realize they are not silent. They have been waiting for traveler's to come along, willing to listen to the language spoken thousand years ago. There will be no longer sorrow and confusion. Because everything is being understood and taken away from. I was gazing into these buddhas eyes and feel like weeping. The burden carried on the trip is released.

It will be these buddhas keep me coming back visit Chiang-mai again and again in the rest of my life. The face of eternity. The face of a traveler's reflection in one desperate night, in a foreign city.

originally posted 05/28, 2004