The Monkey Brothers Adventures in Thailand

Book excerpt: In February 1996, Don Kaufman leaves wintry Oxford, Ohio, home to Miami University, and travels halfway around the world to the sub-tropical climes of Asia. Having never taken more than a couple of weeks off from teaching, Don anticipates a "never-before" experience. After thirty-six hours, he arrives in Chiang Mai and is greeted by Mike Burgett, his close college friend and world-renowned expert on honey bees. As the two rush through the airport, Mike explains that a last-minute change of plans has them heading to the mountain research station in mere hours. Four members of the Chiang Mai faculty will join them. That trip proves seminal, for on their second night on the mountain, the group discovers that each of them was born in 1944-the year of the wood monkey, according to Chinese astrology. Under an ink-black dome lit with glittering stars, they christen themselves "The Monkey Brothers," setting in motion a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. In the ensuing weeks, as they eat, drink, and fish their way throughout Northern Thailand, the six friends form a tight bond. With the Monkey Brothers for company, Don experiences a steady drumbeat of novelties-exotic foods, centuries-old temples, and local sights like the night bazaar-punctuated by incredible moments of terror, joy, and fellowship-careening down a mountain in a truck in the dead of night, accompanying an Elvis impersonator during a raucous concert, and joining the entire nation in a fireworks-splashed farewell to a member of the Thai royalty. Along the way, Don and Mike find that in the Land of Smiles, past and present co-exist peacefully: From a mountaintop in Northern Thailand, they look out in the distance toward the vast, quiet rainforests of Viet Nam, remembering friends and classmates lost in the fighting there decades ago; from the shore of a small island, they survey a reservoir created by the damming of the Kwai River, made famous by the World War II-era film, Bridge on the River Kwai; and from the back of a Honda motorbike, they zip along the streets of Chiang Mai, old friends in search of new adventures.