Back in Chiang Mai

Finally back in Chiang Mai, only this time we are staying a ways outside the city proper in what might be thought of as the suburbs. There was an Italian restaurant about a ten minute walk down the road, but it was closed….permanently.  To get to the city, you can call a taxi which will cost ~$10 US  or you can walk (5 min) to the main road and catch the “bus” to the city for $0.60 cents.

Our bungalow

We’re about 9 kilometers form the city center, at a small hotel consisting of five (?) wooden bungalows, set in a garden-like setting. There really is nothing much around here.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire - It was Christmas day

Hanging off a songthaw

The upside to the taxi is it takes exactly where you want to go, the down side to the bus is that it takes you to the bus stop, which may or may not be convenient, and they run on a “schedule”, although it is not posted. The bus is a yellow songthaw. A songthaw is a modified pick-up truck with a small cab on the back. They come in different colors and you can find them all over Chinag Mai. The color indicates the area they cover, for example the red ones typically are for the city center and slightly around the city, although some friends who speak Thai were able to convince a red one to go our hotel late one night. Basically you flag one down, hop in the back and pay the driver when you get off. The cost is based on distance. They can get packed full with people hanging off the back. We were on one that had 13 people inside and six hanging off the step in the back, myself included. It makes for a heck of a ride and a great experience.

The lady owner of the hotel, who speaks English well, makes a nice American style breakfast and if you eat dinner here, her cooking is fantastic Thai food. You can let her know if you want it Thai spicy or tourist spicy. Needless to say I go with tourist spicy or even less.  I borrowed one of the hotels’ bicycles, built for short people, and went for a ride.

Farm field near the hotel

The road meandered through farm fields, past local homes and of course a few temples. Many of the houses were small traditional style homes; there were newer constructed modern homes; and some downright large beautiful homes that would not be out of place in most Chicago suburbs. Then there were those that looked like storage lockers, one square room with a rolling shutter garage door.

Farmer and his buffalo

At the time of the day I was riding, school was just letting out and the , storefront restaurants were setting up their grills for evening dinners. This type of cooking, outdoor on the street, is common throughout the villages and the city markets and streets.

Steps up to Doi Suthep

In this trip to Chiang Mai we did a lot of touristy things that I will cover in this and the next post.  We started with a trip up a nearby mountain to the Doi Duthep Temple.   The area at the base of the steps leading up to the temple is a myriad of souvenir shops, food vendors and lines of tuk-tuks and sonthaws all ready to relieve you of your Baht.

Doi Suthep

Inside one of the shrines

Another view of Doi Suthep

Yes I know it’s another temple, but that is part of the reason to visit Chiang Mai. I did not think this temple was as impressive as some of those in Chiang Mai, but the view was great. Well, it would be great if the smog wasn’t so thick. The pollution must come from all the vehicles in the city and maybe some power plants, although I did not see any.

Monks have to go too

There isn’t any heavy industry in the area, so it must be the innumerable cars, songthaws, and tuk-tuks spewing emissions everywhere. While the temple may not have been impressive to me, it certainly was popular with throngs of other tourists and practicing Buddhists who come to worship.

On the way down the mountain we stopped a small waterfall, and I do mean small. Once you've seen Victoria Falls, all others will lack in comparison. It was hardly a rivulet, cascading down maybe 30-40 feet.

The nice thing about it was I was able to remove my boots and socks and cool my feet in the cold, clear water.

The internet is not good here. Can't upload photos. I promise I will update everything when I get home. 

Next up: Tiger Kingdom, Ziplining and a Thai Cooking Class

Black and White

We left Chiang Rai and headed back to Chiang Mai. I had always thought of Thailand as being hot and humid, and for the most part it is, however; our time in Chiang Rai certainly changed my perception. I had read that it would be cooler in the mountains, but I thought it would be Thai cooler i.e. it turns 70 degrees and they are freezing. I walking around sweating in shorts and a tee shirt and I see people wearing long sleeves and a jacket, but the mornings in Chiang Mai were downright cold. Again not Thai cold, but for real cold. One morning I had on 2 fleeces and my stocking cap, and I was still cold. When I went to breakfast at about 7:30am the fellow behind the desk was wearing a sweater, scarf and gloves. We were both laughing at how cold it was. I could literally see my breath. And they don’t have heaters in the hotel room, nor did the car our tour guide drove. The good thing is it doesn’t last long and by 9:00 it was perfectly fine. So if you come to northern Thailand in the winter, be prepared for some cold.

On the way back to Chiang Mai we made two stops. The first was to the Black Houses and the second to the White Temple. Both are fairly recent constructions designed by modern artists. One interesting fact is that both artists were born in the city and both were very successful. 

The artist

One of his paintings

The Black Houses are based on traditional northern Thai architecture, but the artist put his own spin on them. The houses are really works of art and they also hold the artists’ collection of objet d'art, some of it quite strange. Lots of animal skins and horns. One house was filled with crocodile skins,

One of the houses

another hand a long table with chairs made of animal horns and at each table setting there was a turtle shell. I

Main :Black house

Art?

saw zebra, wolf, bear, and other animal pelts and there was also a full set of elephant bones. The whole thing looked like something from a Tim Burton movie. Interesting, but very strange.

The White Temple was the opposite although it had its’ own strangeness. From the outside the White Temple is a pure white, concrete structure embedded with pieces of mirror. It is very intricate and dazzling in the bright sunshine.

The White Temple

Art

Add caption

On the inside there is of course a Buddha, but on the painted walls we saw images of Darth Vader, Minions, a burning world trade center and other contemporary icons. Unfortunately you cannot take photos inside.

broken spire

Four months ago there was a 6.4 level earthquake center near Chiang Rai which severely damaged the temple. You could see huge cracks in the walls on the inside, some of the wall mural had collapsed, one of the temple spires had broken, was bent over, and looked ready to fall. Like the Black House, the White Temple was interesting but strange. However both are worth a visit if you come to Thailand.

A restaurant and hotel...there are 4 others

A rubber suit

Close up

Next stop: Back to Chiang Mai    

Gardens, Opium, Tiger penis and the Long Neck tribe

Doi Tung mountain was our first destination today. This is the area where the King’s mother used to live. She was born in Switzerland and loved gardening so the house, although done in the Northern Thai style, has Swiss influences and the gardens are absolutely beautiful. 

Everyone loved the queen mother, as they do the king, because she helped revitalize the area and was a strong advocate in improving the lives of the Thai people. Much of the mountain had been deforested and when the royal villa was built she created the Mae Fah Luang gardens to reclaim some of the mountain.  If you love flowers, this is place. Various varieties of flowers in all colors, shapes and sizes cover the ~25 hectare grounds.  

We moved on to Mae Sai, a border town between Thailand and Myanmar (formerly Burma). Not much to see, but here you can cross a short bridge into Myanmar.   It’s a little sneaky, but well within the law.

Bridge to Myanmar

Many Burmese cross daily to work on the Thai side. If I remember correctly our guide said they can cross starting 6:00am but must return by 6:00pm. Others cross to extend their visas. If your visa is expiring, you go into Burma and then on your return to Thailand you can get a 15 day extension on your visa.

Opium scale and weight sets

Certification of a quality product

Opium was a major commodity in this area known as the “Golden Triangle”, named for the convergence of the three countries (Thailand, Myanmar and Laos) at the confluence of the Ruk and Mekong rivers.  There is a very small opium museum telling the history of the opium trade with a collection of artifacts used in the opium business: Scales and weight sets, opium pipes and pillows, and instruments used for the collection of opium. The story was very interesting as opium was a huge business in its day. Nowadays it is illegal although up in the mountains, deep in the forest, some poppy growers may be found.  

After lunch we boarded a small boat for a short ride on the Mekong river to view the actual piece of triangular land that represents the Golden Triangle.

Mekong river

The golden triangle

It’s basically an overgrown sandbar that disappears when the river rises in the rainy season. The river is quite wide and brown from the soil runoff especially from the Ruk river. From the river you can see the casino in Myanmar and the one on the opposite bank in Laos. We did not have time to visit either but did stop for a brief visit in Laos. There’s just a little area of shops selling stuff to tourists. Most of the usual items of clothing and trinkets you’ve already seen.

Myanmar casino

Laos casino

However, they do make a big deal of the bottle of alcohol with various animals added. We saw snake (very popular), scorpion, gecko and tiger penis in various bottles. The stuff tastes terrible. It’s just pure grain alcohol or kerosene, I can’t tell which, and the critter inside really adds no flavor, it’s just for effect. But I can legitimately say I was in Laos (at least for 45min) and had a Laotian beer, which is very good.

Snake and tiger penis alcohol

Turtle and gecko alcohol

We finished our day with a visit to the Karen long neck village. The Karen are another of the hill tribes that populate Thailand. In total all the hill tribes number about 1 million people. Hmong and Lisu are two other tribes. There are many more. Some came from Burma, China Myanmar, Tibet and other countries. 

Rings 5-6 kilos

The long necks are unique in that the women wear brass rings around their necks, adding one ring each year. They consider the one with the most rings the most beautiful. Even though they are called rings, they are not actually individual rings, but a brass coil that looks like rings. We were shown one set of rings and it is heavy, 5-6 kilos. And although it looks like they are stretching their necks, what is actually happening is the collar bone is being forced down so it appears that their necks are getting longer. There is a lot of controversy around the tourism of the Karen people. Some consider it like a human zoo. Tourists come to view them and take photos, myself included.  They also make handcrafted items, weaving cloth being a major item. They then sell these to tourists to earn a living. But if it wasn’t for the fascination with their long necks, folks probably wouldn’t stop in at all. So the criticism is that the tribes force the children to wear the rings perpetuating the cycle. I spoke with our guide about it and his take was that they were going to continue the practice of the rings regardless of whether tourists came or not and it is the tourists who provide them their income. Also he said the children are given a choice and are not forced to wear the rings. One of the down sides is that if a young girl chooses to go to wear the rings she cannot go to school, the reason being all children must wear a school uniform and having the rings is not part of the uniform.  The Thai government really provides them no support since they are not indigenous people. If the tourists stop coming, so does their income The women are extremely nice and will pose quietly if you ask to take their photo. They know a little English and will answer any questions you have; and our guide was helpful as an interpreter although Thai is not their first language, they do understand some of that as well. The children are delightful and act like children anywhere else in the world. I was really torn about going to visit them, although ultimately we did. For me it was an extremely emotional experience. Even as a I write this, it is affecting me.  I am still unsure exactly how I feel about the practice, but I can tell you it is an encounter that I will never forget.

Next up: Black and White