Chiang Mai

  Chiang Mai, Thailand
Friday, February 21, 2003

DAY 5 THU After a long wait at the airport we caught an Airbus for the sixty-minute trip to Chiang Mai. Our luck with the weather continued to hold (as it would for our entire holiday). We had arrived in Bangkok at the end of a rainy period and were leaving as an even worse one began. The drizzle that greeted us at Chiang Mai Airport quickly dried up and was rarely seen during the remainder of our holiday.

For a few hundred baht we were transferred to our new hotel in a Thai Airways minibus. The Mae Ping was a little less sumptuous than the Royal River, but a palace nonetheless. A light drizzle did nothing to dampen our spirits and, after checking in and depositing our luggage in our balcony-less room, we went for a shortish walk around the block.

In the evening we strolled to several night markets (we did not discover the real night markets until the next night). Margaret was amazing! As a bargainer she is a top gun. The first time that she went into action, bargaining for a b*m bag, I found myself trying to help the sales girl. After a severe dressing down I took no further part in the action. The downside to Margaret's previously unsuspected skill is that the sidewalk vendors tend to close up their stalls or look the other way when she approaches.

Having walked ourselves into the ground, we retired with our scotch and Singha beer.

DAY 6 FRI I started the day with an upset stomach, requiring a hurried trip to the gentleman's convenience in the middle of breakfast. Foolishly I had ordered fresh fruit and pancakes, which, to my shame, I could not finish. Margaret's 'flu had by now become congestion on the chest.

A small minibus arrived at 8.45 am from Tourex. I had to drag Margaret from the hotel jewellery shop, simultaneously saving us $225 for the ring which she didn't have time to buy.

After a long drive through Chiang Mai, which is bigger than we had first thought, we arrived at the Sai Nam Phung Orchid Nursery. Rows and the rows of colourful orchids took our breath away. Margaret bought a very attractive t- shirt for 200 baht.

Our next stop was the Chiang Dao Young Elephant Training Centre where, after crossing a swaying bridge, we saw a number of elephants being watered down by their mahouts. The young elephants were especially appealing. A little later the elephants put on a display of log dragging and rolling. Our companions on this tour were a young German couple, Axel and Martina, whilst our pretty guide was named Kob. Margaret has a natural gift for understanding the broken English of people whose first language is not the same as ours and she did all the talking. Kob would listen to her but address her replies to me. At the time I thought that she had fallen victim to my masculine beauty and old world charm. Years later I realised that she addressed her remarks to me because I was the husband and Margaret merely my wife.

Once the elephants had finished their gig we walked a kilometre or so along a path through the jungle to a small model village. The villagers were a lot more laid back than many of the Thais with whom we had come into contact, continuing with their idyllic lives as if we were not there. We sat in one of the little huts while the head of the house plucked melodic notes on his "guitar". Margaret bought a couple of very attractive shoulder bags for the boys (100 baht each) while I photographed the local domestic animals.



Leaping wearily into the minivan we headed off for lunch. Margaret was less than impressed with the restaurant selected by our guide. Upon arrival she departed with unseemly haste for the ladies' convenience which, like the gentlemen's, consisted of a hole in the ground, two porcelain footprints and a scoop flush. I enjoyed the meal of greasy soup and rice cooked with eggs. Margaret, I am disappointed to report, failed to finish hers (perhaps she was put off by the hairs floating in the soup).

From the restaurant we journeyed to the Chiang Dao Cave. This was a very old cave, containing Buddhas carved into the walls two thousand years ago. On the walk back to the bus I donated 10 baht to three beggars sitting near the entrance. The bulk of my largesse (four baht) I gave to a blind, handless man playing a guitar. This unfortunate person was either playing flamenco music very badly or Thai music extremely well.

We arrived at the Mae Ping at 3pm just as it began to rain. Rather than venture out into the chill, wet streets we adjourned to the Rendezvous Room in time to take advantage of happy hour prices. We sipped our pino coladas (served in hollowed out coconuts) and listened to a Thai group playing traditional Thai music on traditional Thai instruments. Back in Australia I was told that the hotel probably reused the coconuts for other guests. Ours would not have been recyclable since we ate them. After dinner Margaret went to bed to nurse her cold while I cruised the streets (now dry) looking for bargains.

DAY 7 SAT After visiting the King's Winter Palace, Phu Pin Rajan Iwat (eerily beautiful in the all-enshrouding mist), we drove even further up into the hills, stopping at a Meo village and transferring to a taxi truck. The village was a typical tourist trap, being composed mainly of souvenir shops. Margaret bought a number of nice silk scarves and cotton blouses while I failed to buy a "primitive" knife, mainly because they tended to fall apart in my hands. A visit to a Meo hut, dirt floored and thatch roofed, made us appreciate our humble Australian abode. Our American companions cheered us considerably by announcing airily that 75% of tribespeople carried the AIDS virus and that this village would probably be extinct within a few years.



Further up the mountain we found the temple of Doi Suthep, access to which we obtained by manfully staggering up 300 steps. The temple contained many bells, some of which we rang for luck. Other notable features included statues of a sacred white elephant, a sacred grey chook and many gold Buddhas. The mist added a surrealistic, ethereal atmosphere and made the ground slippery. Wearied by the sheer physical effort of strolling through the grounds of the temple we avoided the steps and took a mechanical device down the hill to our transport.



This was only a half-day tour so after lunch we went on an extremely long walk to visit a number of wats. After having experienced great difficulty in interpreting our Nancy Chandler we stumbled upon Chedi Luang, an enormous ruin in the process of being restored to its former, pre Burmese invasion glory.

At Wat Phra Singh we sat respectfully while a large number of saffron robed monks chanted brief afternoon prayers. By this time I had ceased to think of myself as a tourist and was therefore most offended to notice that some of the other visitors to the wat were sitting with their feet pointed towards the Buddha. Extremely bad manners and, what is worse, gauche! Rather than walk all the way home we caught a rickshaw manned by a one-handed (though sighted) cyclist.

After our customary happy hour pino colada we walked to the Whole Earth Restaurant for a vegetarian dinner (variations on bean curds). The night markets once again suffered the attentions of bargain hunting Cullises as we desperately sought to find gifts for the folks at home.



DAY 8 SUN We slept in till 8.15 this morning then hired a taxi truck to take us to San Kam Phaeng (the celudon factory) as well as lacquerware and leather factories. The trip cost us 30 baht ($1.50) for two hours plus 5000baht ($250) for two beautiful items of ceramic ware, the name of which is vaguely similar in sound to celudon. The lacquerware and leatherwork factories/shops were of decreasing interest and far from cheap.

After lunch we footslogged around Chiang Mai looking for bargains in bras. I have been asked ("told" might be a better word) not to go into detail about what I can only describe very broadly as the discrepancy in size between Thai and occidental people. Without being at all specific, this discrepancy is very much in Margaret's favour. Margaret scored once again at the sunglass stand, driving the vendor down to 225 baht for a pair of Ray Bans. I cannot help suspecting that these glasses are not the real thing, but I won't tell Margaret.

As appropriate on a Sunday, we went to the Sacred Heart Cathedral for Mass. Our driver was the same man who had driven us around all morning. Giving him directions to the cathedral was not easy and we almost had to endure a Seventh Day Adventist service when we pulled in at the wrong cathedral. Because Mass didn't start until 6pm (we had thought 5.30) and we thought that the finishing time might be a bit late for him, I gave the driver the 40 baht round trip fare we had previously agreed upon and told him not to bother coming back. He insisted, however, that he would return at 7pm

The cathedral was quite large but very plain. We sat near the front with a small group of Thai kids a few rows ahead. The Mass was entirely in Thai, as were the songs. The homily, while also in Thai, was one of the best I've ever heard. The children were very cute and their behaviour suggested that kids are the same all over the world.

After Mass we waited outside for our driver to return. By 7.10pm Margaret had lost faith (after all, we had paid him in advance) and insisted that we begin walking back to the hotel, however we had only walked a few yards before he drew up across the road.

Following dinner in the hotel restaurant (pig's intestines for me), we packed our bags for the next stage of our trip.