05.25.25 | Lampang

We drive to Lampang this morning, out of the city and through the mountains. We are going to attend a church led by longtime friends of my parents. As we wind the narrow roads up the mountains, my thoughts drift to the overflow of vegetation in Thailand. I often compliment Nashville, my current home, for its greenery despite it being a substantial city. Trees are abundant. There’s a wealth of parks. Hiking trails are short drives away. You can leave the urban quickly. But this can’t compare to Thailand. I am reminded you don’t go to nature here. It’s entwined with everything.

Vegetation in the States is allowed in prescribed areas and carefully policed. In Thailand, space is granted to the artificial. Humans carve little nooks for their buildings and roads, and then they are quickly engulfed by overgrowth. Grass sprouts through sidewalks, vines climb walls, trees cover roofs. The plants are left alone to grow as they please. People let them take up space. They don’t trim or shape them. They shape themselves to the flora. It looks messy, unkept to the western eye. Here, I imagine, the thought is why try to control what gives so much? Most homes, especially in the country, have multiple fruit trees. And they produce abundantly. What a family can’t eat, they give away to their neighbors.

The green is a different quality here. It’s a subtle shift in shade compared to the hues I see in the States. I can’t articulate it. But I see it. It’s unconsciously distinct. The texture of these forested mountains is different too. Shaggy. Like a giant raked up great mounds of fresh leaves. They seem like they could be blown away in a great whirl with one brisk gust of wind.

We stop at a fruit stand on the side of the highway and buy four kilograms of the fattest, rosiest Lychee as a gift for our friends at the church. When we arrive, they welcome us enthusiastically. The congregation is barely a dozen, adults and children. They ask Dad to speak before the service. Worship opens with notes on a guitar and a poorly played piano. They sing traditional Christian hymns translated into Thai. The English versions are foreign to me. I soak up the tones of the Thai lyrics.