6/24/08 Chiang Mai

So we left very early on Thursday for Chiang Mai. The flight was super short and pretty nice. We were a little concerned because our airline was called 1-2-Go, but it was fine. When we arrived at our hotel the lady sat us down and reviewed our itinerary with us. She explained that we could have a car and a driver for the afternoon to take us around to some places where they make handicrafts. This turned out to be a tour of shopping. It was fun though. In addition to buying all kinds of great stuff that we didn't need, we got to see a lot of how they make things like the silk, lacquer, jewelry, and umbrellas.

Then that night we went to the Thai Cultural Center for a dinner theater. It was super cool! We sat on the floor and they brought an array of Thai dishes out to us. Most of it was really really good. I especially loved the fried bananas! Then there was a show of Thai dancing which was really fun to see. They had elaborate costumes and strange Thai music. After that was over, we moved to a separate theater that was outside for some dances of the Hill tribe peoples. My favorite was the fire/knife dance.

The next day was trekking. We did a hike up a hill to a Hmong village. It about killed me, especially after all that hiking I did in Hua Hin. Can't really say the Hmong village at the end was really worth it, but we did get to go over a scary bridge that reminded us all of something out of Indiana Jones. After that was elephant trekking. This was pretty cool because how often do you get to ride on an elephant? But I thought there was an actually destination involved in this trek and it turned out we just went out and then came back the same way. There were 2 baby elephants that just followed their mothers around and they were very cute. We visited another village of one of the Karen tribes where they were making silk (shopping opportunity). After that we went to see a waterfall which was very beautiful and a welcome relief from the heat. Some people were for warned to bring swimsuits and a change of clothes so they went under the waterfalls and got wet! We weren't prepared for this, but had we known what was coming next, we would've just got in. Our last stop was floating down a river on a bamboo raft. You just sit right on it, so as a result you get really pretty wet. But I thought that was the most fun part of the whole day! Unfortuneately there are no pictures of that part since the getting wet part didn't allow for bringing anything with us.

The next day was a trip to the Golden Triangle which is where Thailand, Burma, and Laos all come together on the Mekong river. This involved about a 4 hour van ride each way which really kinda sucked as the roads were winedy and we all felt pretty car sick most of the time. Our first stop was at the runins of a temple in Chiang Rai. Then we went to the Mekong and took a boat ride around the area of the Golden Triangle and made a stop over on the Laos side (another shopping opportunity). The Laos are known for making wiskey and putting corbra and various other things inside the bottles. They believe this will make you stronger. James and Anna were brave and did a free shot of the cobra wiskey. James them proceeded to try the other 2: tiger penis and ginko. From the boat we could also see this giant Buddha that was built for the Queen's birthday a few years ago. They didn't have the money to build it so they borrowed 60 million baht from Austrailia. Aparently they have it almost paid off due to donations. After the boat trip we went to the Thai/Burma border. Not too exciting. Just a huge market (we're pretty much shopped out at this point) and we couldn't even cross the border... got a picture of it though. Lastly we went to another village where the Padaung and Akha people live. These tribes are all origninally from Burma. The Padaung people are best know as the Longnecks. You may be familiar with their pictures of the copper rings aroung their necks. Upon x-ray, doctors have discovered that their necks don't actually strech, but their shoulders are pushed down by the weight of the rings. The adult woman's rings range from 3-5 kilos in weight... trust me, that's heavy! The story goes that the Padaung people would clear the land of trees to plant their harvests. After a couple years the land would become infertile and they would have to clear another piece of land. One day a tiger attacked the village and killed many of the women by biting them on the necks. The felt that the attack was a warning from the gods to stop destroying the forests, but they had no other way of survival. So in an attempt to protect the women from future tiger attacks they began putting the rings around their necks. (makes perfect sence to me!) Oh yeah, and more shopping!

Our last day in Chiang Mai we only had til 3 when we had to leave for the airport, so we just spent that time wandering around the city. There are a lot of remnants of the old city such as ruined walls and temples. There are tons of temples in Chiang Mai! So there's some random pictures of the city and a creepy wax figure of a monk. All in all it was a pretty good trip! Most of the pictures of the elephant trek and such are of other people and I have to wait until they post their pics to get the ones of me. But what i've got so far is up! Enjoy!