Chiang Mai

I cannot say enough great things about Chiang Mai! Chiang Mai is a city in northern Thailand. When thinking about countries in Southeast Asia, its important to remember that they have mostly been artificially created within the last 100 years. What is now Thailand was, in fairly recent history, a collection of kingdoms and tribes, each with their own cultural identity and practices. This is why when you travel around what is a fairly small country, you see differences in architecture, food, dialect, etc. Chiang Mai is just over 700 years old and in the center of current day Chiang Mai is the old city, surrounded by a moat and still showing remnants of the wall that also guarded the city. For being such a well-known Thai city, it is actually pretty small. If you had the time, you could easily walk the old city and the outskirts of town go no more than 3 km outside the old walls.

After we got to our hotel, napped, planned some things we tried to find this restaurant for lunch Beth’s (my friend travelling with us) Thai friend recommended called the Art Cafe. We found this cool looking building in the area we thought the restaurant was in with a sign that said The Meeting Room, Art Café. The front gate was locked but the lights were on inside with a sign on the door that said open so we went in the side door. Everything was set up- laptops out and on, key in the register, dishes out, but no one was there. The place was decorated with incredible local art- some placed randomly like canvases on the floor propped up to full collections- a large kitchen table, a giant bookshelf with books meant to be lent and read- the entire place was styled intentionally and so interesting. We were hungry though so finally moved on to look for somewhere to eat, and found several other galleries meet cafés or restaurants, each boasting their own collections of thai art. It was very refreshing to be in a city that seemed to retain some of its identity and personality. I contrast this is BKK which often feels like people on top of people and shady generic buildings that span on and on without distinction (except of course for Chinatown or little Korea, which is just an attempt to transplant another culture to the area). After lunch we took a certain kind of taxi, which we would rely on for the rest of the weekend, where you sit in the bed of the truck, but on benches, and windows and a roof has been added, but its open out the back. It was very convenient because they can hold 10 and there were 7 of us. We went to a nearby national forest and drove just a short walk away from an awesome waterfall. The group is not particularly sporty collectively, but there are a few of us that really enjoy being in nature and convinced the rest of the group to hike 7 km to another waterfall. We didn’t realized that the first 4 km would be on the side of a highway, which was pretty funny, especially since car after car would honk and laugh at us, but I’m not really sure why. Anyway, we got to the waterfall a little before the park closed at 5, and explored the 2 tiers. The jungle is really incredible and so alive with sounds and foliage- that hike convinced me that I would spend the few weeks I have after school ends to travel in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar (if things work out as planned). All 3 countries are much more rural and untouched and for a number of reasons, have preserved some of their original culture and are at least partially free from westernization, and much of the countries are not developed (especially so with Myanmar, which apparently is like entering a time machine to the 50s), which I would love to see and love to hike through. That night we went to a small traditional Northern Thailand styles restaurant and had the best meal I had ever tasted in Thailand, complete with apps and zerts.

THE NEXT DAY WAS AWESOME. We woke up at 5am to make the 30 min trip to Doi Suthep by sunrise, a very well known temple set up on a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai. When we got there there were just a few monks and a small number of other tourists. The temple is gold and glittery and in the daybreak, unbelievably majestic. I watched the sunrise over Chiang Mai with Malhar, Beth, Ivan and Madiha- it was such a lovely view and I felt so full and so lucky to be surrounded by wonderful people, in a beautiful place, among a temple that is so alive. While there were a few other tourists who made it up there for sunrise, there were many thai men and women, and monks, who were circling the temple and praying, and after sunrise they left. There was a garden at one part of the temple with flowers and beautiful plants, but also very expressive figurines and gifts. This is what really struck me about Doi Suthep- it was not just an historical building, but was pulsing with life and engaged in a relationship with its devoted visitors. Afterward we went into town to have breakfast (a term used loosely since 3 of us ordered burgers despite that it was 9:30 am). Then we went to a “tiger reserve,” which is a place where several tigers are kept in captivity and you can play with them for about 15 minutes for a fairly reasonable price. However, there are a lot of moral concerns with these sort of places. Even though the reserve said they did not drug their tigers, the large tigers were extremely sedated, breathing very slowly and hardly moving, even as adult were rubbing them all over and taking pictures and I think that there is just no way those tigers are not drugged. Also, the cages that these massive, intelligent and active animals were kept in were painfully small. The floor was concrete, and some had a small plain concrete pool, and then each cage had a tree trunk or two and that’s it- no stimulation, no exercise. I decided not to participate and hung out with the others who didn’t want to either, but the ones that did had a great time (they played with very playful babies) and the pictures they took were stunning- tigers are such striking animals. Afterward we went to a snake show. There was a small circular ring and wooden stands on three sides of the ring- all of these pretty small and the stands were just a few feet from the ring. The men working the show would empty a burlap sack in the middle of the ring and the snakes would immediately race towards the stands, poised to attack, and the trainers would grab their tail right before they got out. These were not harmless snakes either- cobras, pythons, venomous really fast snakes- and would tease them and provoke the animals. It was pretty awesome to watch. The trainers were very playful and would mess with the audience by swinging the snake by the tail so its face was just inches from your own or would be holding a venomous, dangerous snake and drop it on us, but actually be holding on to the head and tail so nothing bad would happen but was sufficiently terrifying. They had a collection of dangerous snakes in cages, in addition to crocodiles and exotic birds, but all in very small cages that don’t offer any room for stimulation or exercise. After that we went to another excellent meal and had just enough time for a 20 minute nap before our cooking class!! The cooking class was all of us besides Ivan, and just us. They company picked us up at our hotel and then we went to an outdoor market where our teacher, a 20-something woman named Benz talked to us about different ingredients commonly used in thai cooking. Then we went to the owner’s home, where the bottom floor was designed for these classes and started cooking. There was a island in the center of the kitchen for chopping and then 6 stovetops. The other room was a big dinner table. Everybody picked out 6 dishes (appetizer, soup, curry, noodles, dessert, stir fry)- one from a choice of 3 for each dish, so we weren’t all cooking the same thing. The food turned out so great and the amount of food we consumed was unreal- I don’t think I have ever eaten that much in one day, even though I fancy myself a champion at marathon eating when necessary. Benz, and another teacher, Boom, were hilarious and it was just 5 hours of fun. They gave us ingrediants and I really think I could recreate the dishes. Each dish (except dessert) had the same three ingredients as a base: fish sauce, palm sugar (like a grainy paste) and tamarind juice, just in different proportions. I think in general, thai food is pretty low in fat, but you have a lot of sodium in everything. Afterward we went to the Saturday market, which was a giant outdoor market for shopping. Its crowded and I wasn’t interested in buying anything, and Malhar isn’t into these sort of things either so we just hung out while the others got done. Afterward, we went to a rooftop bar called THC. It wasn’t tall at all, maybe 4 stories, but it was decorated excellently. The walls on the staircase were covered with murals or graffiti of all different styles. You get to the third floor and have to take off your shoes and walked up a steep staircase to the bar, which is pretty small. The floor of the mats is all covered with straw mats and there are no chairs, just pillows and really low tables. It is lit by lanterns and looks out over downtown. There was an awesome dj- thai 20-something woman with dreads both blonde and brunette- mixing tracks and everybody was extremely friendly. People would just come up and start talking or invite the group to sit with them. The bar was full of backpackers (so many dreads in this room) from all over the world. They told us about where they’ve been, what they liked, where they can’t wait to go, why they came, etc. It was a lot of fun and got me more excited for my future travels, including what I am about to leave for- the (infamous) full moon party in Koh Phanang- every person I talked to was headed there. The full moon party is a 15,000 person all night beach party celebrating the full moon and thus happens every month, but it’s happening on a Saturday this month, which is more rare, so everyone is going. Comments on that will happen next week, but I’ve been told it will be like nothing I have ever seen before.

On Sunday, Malhar, Madiha, Ivan, Beth and I woke up early again to do a bike tour of the city. The tour guide was from North Carolina so he was pretty excited to have 3 tarheels on the tour and he was awesome to talk to. He told us about a over night hike on a mountain called Chiang Dao about 1.5 hours from Chiang Mai with incredible views- we are hoping to do that next weekend. Anyway, it was an easy bike ride and we went through the entire city- seeing markets, neighborhoods, parks and temples. I didn’t realize how many beautiful temples Chiang Mai had, and we got to hear the stories behind their construction. But mostly it was fun to navigate the city’s traffic and spend some time on a bike. Afterward we had lunch than went to the train station for our 15.5 hour train ride back to BKK. We got a sleeper train so we each had top bunks, which is definitely the most fun way to travel. I am so excited to take my parents and Katy and her bf John back to Chiang Mai when they visit in April and mostly so excited that I get to go back!!!

… wow that was very long. Pics come later