Chiang Mai
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2005
1
9
37
Trip End
Dec 10, 2005
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Ended up staying at the 5 stars guesthouse which really only rated about .5 of a star in our opinion but it was only 70B each for the night and it had hot water for a shower. The owner was very friendly and had a well set up travel/tour desk which we went back and booked all our other tours through.
Day 1 in Chang Mai we ventured out for breakfast and half way through eating it started teaming with rain. We looked up a few potentials for changing guesthouse and now we are staying at the V.S guesthouse which is very clean, large with hot water and a fan for 160B each a night. The rain eventually stopped and we decided to head out to the Tribal Museum for a looksy. Had a hoot of a tuktuk driver called Come - he introduced himself as "My name is Come.......and i go!" Anyway, the museum was closed so he bought us back into town where we just sifted around for a while. I finally got into a McDs for a Choc Oreo McFlurry! Dont get those in Japan and I was hanging out for one.
We went to the hyped up Chang Mai Night Bizarre that night. I bought a nice summer skirt which is great for backpacking round for 150B. Started the bargining at 280B so well done me! The food hall of the night bizarre was closed for renovations and it took us ages to find a good looking Thai food restaurant. When we did we had a Northern Thai meal of Northern Pork Curry, Chang Mai Yellow Chicken Noodles and a Northern Spicy Sausage Salad. All dishes were yum! We hoped to see a Lady Boy show at a place that diplayed lots of Thai "arts" but unfortunatly we only got to see Thai Boxing.
Day 2 we had booked in for the cooking course. There are so many to choose from up here but the very helpful man from the 5 stars guesthouse recommended the Classic Home Cooking School run by the teacher Vannee. It was such an awesome day. Stared with us choosing what we wanted to make. We had a fun group of people, 9 in total and we each got to pick the dishes we wanted to make from a large menu. We then had a market tour to pick up some fresh vege etc. First dish of the day was making the curry paste we would use for our curry. I made a Red Curry Paste and then a Sweet and Sour Chicken Curry. Then it was onto a stir-fry and I made a Chicken Basil and Chilli, Soup was a Glass noodle soup, Noodles - Flat noodles in a thick sauce, Salad - spicy glass noodle salad and finally a Thai omelet. Jo and Pie made different Thai delights. All the food was fantasic but there was just so much to eat that we couldnt quite finish it all. Took home a doggy bag but I had a Thai food overload that i couldnt bring myself to eat anymore Thai food that day. We got a cookbook at the end of it with all the recipes in it that we made and could have made. Jo and I are keen to pull off a Thai Dinner Party when I get to London - Just need to master a few good fruity cocktails! To shake down the mountains of food in our bellys we wandered the Sunday Markets for a while and picked up a couple of nik-knacks
Day 3 we did another recommended tour, this time we went into the Jungle South of Chang Mai. Tour started with a hike into the Jungle, up a hill to visit the Hmong Tribe. The tribe village was not quite what I imagined. We only got to see the touristy part where the ladies were selling crafts. A little disapointing really to no see the villages doing their day to day living activities. Made it back down the hill and mud without falling. They did lend us these crack up bright umbrella hats to wear to fend off the rain. Next stop was bamboo rafting down the murky river. Lots of fun and laughs. Our driver kept shouting "Yee Ha", "O no" etc. Got totally soaked without falling in! 1/2 way down we found it was much more exciting if we all stood on the bamboo raft - a little more risky and shaky shaky.
Lunch was at a random little hut and we had a good feed of rice, sweet and sour vege, chicken capisicum and a chicken potato curry.
After lunch we got to ride Elephants for an hour through the jungle. We had a huge Elephant called Kara. She liked to stop and eat the whole way along and saw the river and decided she wanted a swim!
The final tribe we visited was the Karen Tribe. This tribe village was a little more interesting than the other one and had the ladies making the fabrics, kids running round trying to sell beads for 10B etc but still felt a little strange.
Today we have a day of chilling out and we will go back to the Tribal Village Museum since its open today and not sure what else.
Addition The Tribal Museum was very interesting. Our tour guide did give us info on the tribes we saw at the time but I think I absorbed more today. A litle bit about the tribes we saw... The first tribe we visited was the Hmong Tribe which originated from China and Lao. There are now 253 villages in Thailand. The Hmong tribe survived mostely from Opium cash crops, rice and corn. In 1959 the Thai government banned the production and consumption of Opium and started developing programes, inrastructure, technology and education to replace Opium cultivation with other cash crops of vege, fruits and spices/herbs and also supported the selling of tribal crafts in markets. The guide was not too clear on how the intervention was going.
The 2nd tribe we saw was the Karen tribe which is the largest tribe group in Thailand with 1912 villages and the people originated from Burma. Their crops are mostely rice, veges and chillis.
Although tribes now have access to modern technologies and medicine they continue to practice indigenous healing by a preist, herbalist and masseur or combination before modern medicine. Weaving their own cloth for everyday and ceremonial clothing is still done plus making crafts such as bags and cloth for selling at the markets in the towns. Their food is all cultivated there in the village. We saw pigs and chickens walking round the village but many tribes also have cattle and elephants. Elephants and cattle used for working and cattle, pig and chickens used for feasts or sacarafice offerings to ward off evil sprits they believe present in the village. All in all it was a really interesting museum and well worth the 40B tuktuk ride.
Chang Mai has a really neat feeling to it. Way more chilled out than Bangkok with loads to do for days. We havn't even had to visit any Wats to fill in time!
We have booked our onwards trip into Laos which starts tomorrow. 1 night in a small village on the Thai boarder then cross over into Laos for a 2 day trip down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang.
