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Chiang Mai-temples and cooking
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Chiang Mai is Thailands second city after Bangkok, in the north of the country. It has hundreds of temples, many of them were built in the 14th century and have been recently renovated. The surrounding hills are home to many different tribes, similar to those we came across in China, but here they have become something of a tourist attraction. one of the most well-known tribes is the karen or longneck tribe who are famous for putting brass rings around their necks to elongate them. Our guidebook warned us of the terrible exploitation that these people are suffering. Tour operators are making a lot of money by taking tour groups to see the tribe, but the tribespeople themselves get very little of it. They claim that they can lead normal lives with the neckrings, but doctors say that the practise is very bad for the health as all the neck muscles become very weak... you can imagine how painful it must be. The problem is, young girls are encouraged by their mothers to continue the practise because it is the only way they know how to earn money for the family. I saw a very disturbing picture of a girl who looked about 3 who already had a few rings on her neck. Needless to say we didn't go to see the tribe.
The centre of the city is surrounded by 14th century walls, and is chock full of backpackers finding themselves. After you have spent a few days here, you can see why this is such a tourist magnet... its has extremely good weather, its extremely cheap and tourism is the main industry, so it is designed for tourists needs. Most travellers here are studying either massage, meditation, thai cookery or hedonism. Its very easy to get a full english breakfast, a cheap massage and a tuk tuk. There is constant hard-sell of tours which we decided to avoid this time as they haven't been our best experiences. One of the tours was elephant trekking, but the elephants in Thailand aren't wild, they have all been trained to do tricks. There is actually a problem in Thailand because there isn't enough land to house all the elephants as the country is so developed. Some of them have ended up homeless in Bangkok which was dangerous for them and humans alike. We avoided these tours as well, partly because we had already had the best possible elephant trekking experience in Laos.
On the first day in Chiang Mai we went to look at a lot of amazing temples, full of gold and elephants. By the end of the day though, we were both templed out. The second day we did a brilliant Thai cookery course. The teacher was like a school dinner lady. The food tasted amazing even though we (sort of) made it. We can't wait to try the dishes out at home ! Our favourite thing about Thailand is probably the food, and the fact that people eat about 5 times a day here. Food is extremely cheap as well, but one has to be careful as the chilli is super hot ! More thumbnails ...
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