Chiang Mai, Thailand – November 21-24, 2010

We arrived in Chang Mai in the late afternoon of the 21st, and had a few hours to relax and unpack before heading off to a dinner and cultural show. I took a tuk tuk down to the old town to do a walking tour during this free time. I had the driver drop me at the first temple on the walking tour and away I went. The first temple was Wat Chiangmun, which was built in the 13th century. (Wat means temple so you’ll probably see a few more wat references in this blog.) The outside was very nice with gold decorations on a green background. On the inside the walls had beautiful paintings in bold colours. The central altar (?) was very large and gold and held relics from King Mangrai from centuries ago. The interior had dark wood beams with gold decoration so even the ceiling was nice. There are always many buildings around these temples so it’s sometimes hard to tell which one is the main one. Another one on this site was blue with gold decorations and another appeared to be just the natural dark wood with gold decorations. They were all beautiful. Even the stupa was beautiful. It was large and high with rock on the bottom with elephants all around the one level, and the top seven tiers were done in gold. Just don’t ask me what type of gold (solid gold, gold leaf, etc.) because I have no idea. All that glitters is not gold but this certainly glittered in the sun.

After leaving the temple I tried to follow my walking tour but never did see their next point where I was supposed to turn. I just sort of followed my own route up and down the streets and looking at smaller temples and eventually made it to the Cultural Centre. It has a large front yard and it was very busy. There were beautiful paper lanterns of bright colours hanging everywhere. I never actually tried to get into the centre as there was just too much going on outside. I wandered down the one side and there was a market set up. There were lots of people there. There was also another small temple on that side and it was packed with people and decorated with hanging lanterns so everyone was sitting under the decorations and the decorations were all an outsider could actually see when looking in. I continued my walk around the block of the cultural centre and came back to the main entrance to see floats lined up on the street getting ready for the parade. I wandered down the row of floats and took some pictures as I was not going to be able to stay for the parade. By the time I was finished it was time to make my way out of the old city through the city wall and over the moat to the new city to find a tuk tuk to take me back to the hotel so I could change before our dinner and show. Where I exited the old city there was a display of brightly coloured elephant statues which were very interesting. They were only temporary and for the festival. The moat itself is also very nice and provides a nice green space around the old city wall.

The Kantoke dinner and cultural show was very good. The four of us sat at a table but a lot of people were sitting on the floor in the centre of the room eating from low tables. Their way might have been more traditional but ours was definitely more comfortable. The meal was traditional Thai and very tasty. There was only one dish that was so spicy that I didn’t really enjoy it. The rest were delicious and the fried chicken was especially good although I have no idea what spices they had on it. They use a lot of lemon grass in their cooking and it has a wonderful lemon aroma. They also have a lemon grass that they don’t use in cooking as it has a very strong aroma and can’t be eaten. It is used in perfumes and it smells a lot like lemon pledge.

The cultural show was in two parts. One part was in the dining area and the other was in another theatre with wooden seats under a thatched roof. With all the firecrackers going off everywhere I wasn’t sure I wanted to be sitting under a thatched roof but everything turned out okay. The first part of the show was short formal dances such as the fingernail dance, peacock dance and the lantern dance which I had previously seen. The music was played by a small orchestra playing traditional instruments. The costumes were very colourful and the ladies were beautiful. Most of the dances were done by ladies but some such as the knife dance were done by males. There were many dances but I don’t remember what all of them were at this point. The latter part of the show included the more active dances such as the bamboo dance and this time with children trying to jump over the moving bamboo poles. It also included the harvest dance which I’d seen before, and several short tribal dances around the campfire. The announcer was a bit hard to understand so I didn’t really catch the names or some of the tribes represented or the meaning of the dances. However, they were still interesting to see. It was also interesting that so many of the costumes looked quite heavy and hot, almost Mongolian in style, and I guess there is some Chinese influence as well in the northern area. The whole show was enjoyable and definitely a cultural experience. It was not as professional as some of the other shows we’ve seen but it was done by the local people and represented their lives.

On the 22nd we took a trip out of the city to Wat Doi Suthep, a temple tucked away in the mountains at around 3,500 feet above sea level. There are 290 steps leading up to the temple but our tour guide had already ordered tickets for the funicular so what could we do? We really were prepared for a long slow climb in the heat and had agreed we’d all just go at our own speed and meet at the top. But then it turned out we didn’t have to worry. At the top, the temple and grounds were fantastic but we couldn’t enjoy the view since it was too foggy down in the valley. All the buildings of the Wat Doi Suthep are decorated in gold and other shiny stones and they really are impressive, especially on a sunny day which it was. The rooftops and stairways are decorated with ornate dragons. The pillars are red with gold decorations and the roofs are red and gold, if not totally gold. The buildings themselves are green, blue, red colours and very shiny with inlaid gems or stones or glass between the gold decorations. Inside and outside the buildings are many, many golden statues – mainly Buddhas in different stances and for different purposes. Some of the buildings had beautiful marble walls and some had beautiful paintings or murals on the walls. The main stupa was all gold with simple geometric decorations and many versions of the seven tiers. It was well over 100 feet high so very impressive. The royal umbrellas around it were also gold but so fine and delicate that they looked like lace. Even the fence around the stupa was in gold. In one of the temples there was a green emerald or jade Buddha that is supposed to be a model of the one in the Grand Palace, the one we didn’t see because that temple was closed when we were there. The central Buddhas were often surrounded by many smaller statues and decorations. In one building the Buddha statues were surrounded by mosaics of sparking gems or glass in various colours. I no longer know which one was the main temple because they were all so spectacular in their own way. This was definitely the most impressive and ornate temple we visited on the trip as the gold just made it glimmer in the sun. The temple was built by the King in the 14th century. The steps up to the temple weren’t built until the 16th century so I guess you just climbed mountain paths before that. The temples was reconstructed and expanded in the 19th century and the road was added in the 20th century. Even today many of the people and the monks will still walk up the road or climb the steps to get to the temple.

On the way back to our hotel we stopped at old town and visited Wat Phra Singh, the main civic temple in the old town. It is a working monastery and it was apparently an orientation day for new monks because they were everywhere in groups taking tours. Again there were many buildings in the complex and we only visited a couple. Some of them were the residences so we definitely didn’t go there. The stupa was all white and quite high. Some of the temples were white and some were a dark wood but all had small intricate gold geometric decorations so very impressive. The rooftops and the staircases again had decorated golden dragons. In some buildings the paintings or frescoes on some of the walls were almost totally worn off but in one area they had started restoration so you could see what it might have looked like. These pictures all tell stories because, as in many other places, most people couldn’t read so the stories were passed down verbally and in pictures. The Buddha statues were in gold and very nice but much smaller than the previous temple. The altars around them were heavier and darker in colour. The window shutters and door carvings were very detailed and beautiful with gold on wood. The one temple centre piece was very large and high and very intricately decorated with gold and other gems. The Buddha seemed very small against the larger background. The wooden pillars and door and window frames were ornately decorated in gold and other gems. Another temple had white walls and pillars against the wooden roof and then a beautiful large golden Buddha with several other smaller Buddhas in front and around it. The simplicity of the surroundings made this Buddha seem large and brilliant. The working monasteries have different temples for different occasions and that is one of the reasons there are so many temples in one complex. Another reason is because as the complex grew in size another larger temple was added but the older ones were kept as well. They seem to put them all to use.

The three of us decided to stay in the old town for lunch and do some sightseeing. We ended up eating at an ice cream parlour and lunch, at least my banana split, was delicious. We then wandered around the town and looked at some more temples. There are 27 temples in the old town and it is less than 3 square kilometers in size so it’s easy to find temples. The other two took a tuk tuk back to the hotel and I wandered around for another couple hours and then walked back to the hotel. One of the highlights was visiting Wat Jedi Luang which is home to a large university and to the City Pillar. I’m not sure how old the pillar is but it is huge and was built in the centre of the city at that time. A large earthquake in the 16th century caused great damage and it has not been totally restored. However, parts of it have been and they are impressive with elephants all around the one tier of the square pagoda. The steps on four sides are very steep and guarded by dragons or serpents. It’s hard to tell as they are quite worn down. The pillar was built in the 14th century. It is over 80 metres high, although the exact height is not known as no one knows what was on the top of the pagoda originally, and is the highest in Thailand. It is 60 metres along each side so quite impressive. I’m sure when it was in its original style and completely gold plated, it was even more spectacular. All of the buildings surrounding the pillar are also quite impressive and very ornately decorated with a lot of gold. Again on my way home for the evening I saw floats getting lined up for the parade so I followed along the line to take a look at them although I did hope to see these ones later in the actual parade.

The old city of Chiang Mai is not like other old cities I have visited. Yes, it is surrounded by the remains of a city wall and a moat but the inside doesn’t really seem that old. Most of the streets are wider than in European old towns and there really isn’t much to see. The stores are mainly for locals and include mechanics shops and hardware stores. You don’t get the usual touristy things except in street carts at the main attractions, mainly the temples. The sidewalks are in terrible shape so you really have to watch where you are stepping and finding a restaurant is tough. They seem to all be located in one small block so if you’re not in that area you are out of luck. It was fun to wander around and amazing to see just how many temples there were but it wasn’t an exciting old city that really made you want to go back to see more.

That evening the three of us went down to the parade and the night market and to dinner at the Whole Earth Restaurant. We walked from the hotel down to the night market but didn’t do much shopping. Then we came to the parade route and watched a bit of the parade. Then we took a very roundabout way to reach the restaurant but it was worth it and the meal was good. After dinner we walked to the nearest boat launch on the river to watch the locals release their floats into the water. The area was behind one of the temples and it was very crowded. People were also releasing their lanterns into the air so it was interesting to watch all of the activity. However, many people were also letting off firecrackers here, there and everywhere so you never really knew when something was going to explode around you. That part I didn’t particularly like. The others went back to the hotel at this point but I decided to walk up to the bridge and see more of the lanterns being released.

I walked up the street and it was crowded everywhere. At this stage it was closed to vehicular traffic, except for tuk tuks, and it was still crowded with just the pedestrians. I got out on to the bridge and looked at some of the floating lanterns but I think it was too late to get a lot of them at once. However they were trickling by. There were people in the water catching some of them and I never did quite figure out whether this was planned and the people were out there collecting any valuables for the temples, or whether they were just out there collecting things for themselves. The floats were quite elaborate and many of them had fruit and other foods on them. Apparently some also had money so the people in the water were at least getting the money. I’d like to think that they were getting all the money and the food and putting it to good use but I’m not sure that was the case.

I then walked backwards along the parade route enjoying the colourful floats and costumes as well as the music and the incredibly beautiful ladies on the floats. This is a real beauty competition and I think every float held its own competition to find the most beautiful girls to ride the float. The guys were okay too but the girls were particularly beautiful. I figured if I went backwards on the route it would speed up the process. The parade is actually scheduled from 6 p.m. to 12 midnight so I don’t know how long it really is. However, the floats stop quite frequently so people can get out on the street and take pictures and so the bands can play for them. I don’t know whether the parade got started right at 6 p.m. as scheduled but it was certainly going by 7 p.m. when we saw the earlier floats and it was still going when I started walking the route at 9:30. I reached the end about 10:15 and it would certainly take until at least 11 (if not later) for the last float to reach the far end of the parade route. The streets were still packed so I guess the people are used to long parades. And it was a perfect night to be watching a parade – full moon and probably 70 degrees with just a very slight breeze at times. My feet were tired though so I took another tuk tuk back to the hotel instead of doing more walking.

Loy Krathong day festivities are big all over Asia and they are set for the full moon in November so the date always varies. We were just lucky to be around on the full moon because none of us really planned it that way. We were also lucky to be in Chiang Mai as it has one of the biggest celebrations. Bangkok has the event but only on one day. Chiang Mai celebrates for three days with parades and free music concerts and fireworks and beauty competitions and many, many other events including a lot of temple presentations. Chiang Mai is also the city that started floating the lanterns into the air. All places float their trouble, worries and sins away down the river but most are just getting into the airborne lanterns. It is quite a sight to behold as there are hundreds if not thousands of these lanterns floating up to the sky. And they move in a column as the wind takes them so it almost looks like a ballet or choreographed presentation. From our hotel window we looked toward the river so had a great view of the lanterns being launched and the fireworks. There were probably six different launch sites within our view and each one had its own pattern. A lantern would rise every minute or two and then would move with the wind currents so they were always in a row moving in one direction or another depending on their level and the direction of the wind. It was quite fascinating to watch and at any one point in time there were hundreds and perhaps thousands of lanterns in the sky. They burned for a long time but eventually they did burn out and on several occasions an empty lantern also went down past my window. The ground was littered with them the next day and our guide said the people would just gradually pick them up and dispose of them. These lanterns are the shape of a barrel or tube, maybe four feet high and four feet around. The lantern sits on the bottom and the hot air eventually forces the lantern to rise. Obviously with hundreds or even thousands of these lanterns in the air, air travel is limited and even cancelled for certain hours every evening. I probably won’t have any decent pictures of the lanterns but I can assure you they were quite wonderful to watch and it really quite a neat tradition and a great festival, especially given that it is always on the night of a full moon.

On the 23rd we had another scheduled tour and we went to the Maesa Elephant Training Camp. Asian elephants can be trained while the larger African elephants cannot be trained. When we first arrived the elephants were taking their baths in the river and they were definitely having a good time rolling around and splashing and being groomed by their trainers. The elephants here are used to help with work and some of what we saw showed us just how they are used for work. They were dragging heaving logs and then piling them against leaning poles. This took teamwork and if any one of the elephants didn’t do their part the log would have rolled back on the others so it was interesting to see how they handled the job. We also saw them playing soccer and basketball. In the first they would kick the ball with their front or back foot. The goalie would stop the ball with foot, head or body – whatever worked best. Because they are so big and the exhibition area is so small it was really only one elephant per side versus one goalie in a shoot out and the one elephant was very good. The other one didn’t often hit the net but he was fun to watch. At the end when the goalie was going after a ball beside the net, this guy ran in and just put his ball in the net and then did a little celebratory dance. The basketball they pick up and throw with their trunks. Again it was one on one and the first elephant was better and was winning so the second one just went up and dropped his ball into the net. They also had an elephant versus a human dart throwing competition. There were lots of misses but they each hit one balloon. The human then ran up and broke many of her balloons so the elephant went up too and broke his balloons with his tusks. It was obviously all staged but it was fun to watch these huge animals playing the games. Of course they all had different personalities and the littlest one was hilarious. No matter what he was supposed to be doing he had to keep twirling his trunk around and around first to get everyone’s attention as if it was his warm up dance. They also all bowed or curtseyed to all sides of the audience and waited for their applause. I guess I should also say that each elephant has a rider who is in control of the process. At the beginning they showed us how the riders get on and off the elephants whether coming from the side, front or back. The elephants could even take the hat off of the humans and then put it back on them later. It was amazing exactly what they could do with their trunks.

The best part of all was the art demonstration, which also showed what they could do with their trunks. Five of the elephants came out carrying their paint trays with their trunks. The humans carried the easel and perhaps a 2 x 3 foot art paper that was set up on the easel. The humans also chose the brush, put the paint on it, and handed it to the elephant. The elephant then held the brush with his trunk and proceeded to paint, with a little help from the human who pulled the elephant’s ear occasionally. The pictures were amazing. The one right in front of us did a small plant or tree with red flowers. It was mainly a white background with a black flower pot, some black lines for the branches, some green for the leaves and then the red for the flower. It was very good and took a lot of training I’m sure. The other elephant we could see was using a different technique (doesn’t that sound silly when talking about an elephant painting?) in that he was painting a landscape. He used much larger brushes and started by dabbing in a blue sky. Then he switched colours and went to a darker shade for the mountains and then a couple shades of green to do the trees and ground. Near the end he switched to a smaller brush and drew a tree trunk and branches, and then proceeded to put some leaves and flowers on that. It really was a beautiful painting and probably the best of the group. In the end it sold for 6,000 baht or about $200. The others sold for 2,000 baht I think. One of the others was rather abstract but interesting. One was a tall tree with flowers and it was very nice. The last one was another plant with lovely yellow pedals and a red centre. It was quite amazing to watch these elephants paint and I was impressed. I might even have bought a painting if they hadn’t been so expensive and if the people right near the exit hadn’t already done so.

After the show we went for an elephant ride through the jungle and over a hill to the next village. There was a stand to climb up so you were at the height of the elephant’s back and then you just stepped on the elephant’s back and into the wooden seat that was mounted on his back. The seat was reasonably comfortable to sit in but the elephant takes such big lumbering steps that you really are jerking around quite a bit. They had a bar in front of you so you wouldn’t fall out but you really had to hold on at times anyway. It was really hot and sunny at times when we weren’t under cover of the trees so I had an umbrella in one hand for shade and my camera in the other snapping pictures. It was much easier when we were under the canopy of leaves so I could put the umbrella down and have one hand free. The views near the top of the hill were stunning and we caught glimpses of our native village as we descended the hill. All around us the vegetations was very thick. The path was narrow and often right against the side of the hill on one side. My elephant kept stopping to scratch his side against the trees on the one side. The elephant in front kept trying to rip out vegetation to eat. Both acts bounced the riders around a fair amount. And often there was a rather large drop down the one side of the path so you really didn’t want to be bouncing around a lot. The elephants obviously just step in the same foot prints left by those ahead of them as these were very, very deep footprints and then an untouched path. At times it seemed like we were going straight up and at other times straight down but I think that was just because the elephants were so big and there often was quite a difference in the level of their front and back feet. Anyway, it was a fun ride and lasted almost an hour before we reached the other valley and the village we were going to.

The Karen Hill Tribes (Long Neck or Padong) are supported by the government in an attempt to save some of these smaller tribes. This group was originally from Myanmar and some are still Myanmar citizens who live here with permission of the Thailand government. There were several different but related tribes in this village but we were here to see mainly the long-neck tribe. As the name suggests, these people have long necks and that is because they wear gold rings around their necks. They start this when they are very young and the number of rings increases as they get older. The gold spirals are very beautiful and so are the ladies wearing them. Apparently these days only girls born on certain special days wear the bands so not everyone has one. Most of the ladies and the young girls we saw were wearing them. We lifted one and it was incredibly heavy. Around their neck they look decorative and you don’t think about what they actually weigh. The doctor with us estimated the weight at over 4 kilograms or close to 10 pounds, and of course that weight increases as rings are added. He is a neurosurgeon and was curious as to what the effects were on the people wearing the necklaces but apparently it does not affect their spinal cord or back bone at all. The shoulders apparently drop lower but that is the only change. With the extra weight around their necks, they sometimes have to wear gold rings on their legs as well to keep their balance when they bend over during the day. The girls have wonderful posture and I guess that probably relates to the extra weight and balance as well.

The village is very nice with bamboo homes up on stilts. The roofs are thatched and many are covered with tea leaves. They are not on stilts for flooding but would be safe if there were heavy rains down the hillside. The real reason they are on stilts is for natural cooling with the shade and the air moving under the actual house. Saint Nicolas Church is at the end of the town and the church also helps to support the village. There were lots of children playing in the village when we were there and they were playing just like any children do. Some had trucks. Some had dolls. Some had hula hoops. Some were colouring and some were just playing in the dirt. We then walked across a path through a just harvested rice paddy to visit some of the other tribes. We saw one lady from the long ear tribe where they stretch the hole in the ear with various adornments and another lady from the belt tribe where they wear heavy ornate metal belts. We also saw an elderly lady, about 80, harvesting rice. She had a wooden pounder that she operated by foot to break the chaff from the grain and then had a wicker basket for separating the two. The houses were the same as in the other part of the village.

We took our lunch break at Tiger Kingdom and then a visit with the tigers. Lunch was a delicious buffet for 200 baht or about $7. The restaurant obviously only exists as a tourist stop as there were many tourists and tour guides in the place. The tourist stop is really the tigers that you can actually even watch from the restaurant. I paid to see the smallest, small and big tigers but in fact got a visit with the smallest, small and medium tigers. The medium tigers were 13 month old twins named Jennifer and Sophia. The small tigers were 6 months old and there were three of them but I didn’t get their names. The smallest were just two months old and they were Lulu and Lala, again twins. Both Lulu and Lala were asleep while I was there so it was easy to take pictures with them and pet them. The guides just pick them up by front and back paws and position them in your lap or wherever you’d like them. They really are just like cats and most of the day they sleep. The three small tigers were also pretty lazy but they were awake enough to know we were there bugging them while they tried to sleep. Their compound was pretty wet and dirty so I didn’t get right down beside them for any pictures. Kneeling was enough for me. The medium tigers were definitely larger and I did get down beside them for some pictures. They are beautiful animals and very well cared for. They seemed quite content but I really wasn’t sure whether they were breeding them here or whether they were orphans who were being cared for. I have a feeling they are all being bred here just to live in captivity for tourists like me. I can’t imagine it’s much fun for them but perhaps they are content as they know nothing different.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Orchid Farm and it was beautiful. I had no idea that orchids took four years to grow and the first year is spent in a bottle. This farm just has rows and rows of hanging orchids that get misted twice a day but have no soil around their base. I probably should have known this was how orchids were grown but I didn’t. Anyway, with all the cross pollination they are doing, they have some incredibly lovely colours and varieties on display so it was a pleasure to spend some time enjoying their park. It was an added bonus that they had an enclosed butterfly garden. I had forgotten just how hard it is to actually see a butterfly sitting on a plant or how hard it is to actually get a good picture of a butterfly with its wings open. I did get a few good pictures though and I just enjoyed being in the garden with all the butterflies fluttering by me. I almost missed the most unique butterfly as it looked just like a leaf with its wings closed. When it opened its wings it was a beautiful grey, blue, black and gold, which was well worth waiting for.

We got back to the hotel just after five and at seven the four of us took tuk tuks up to the Riverside Restaurant and enjoyed a lovely dinner outside on their patio. The musician who was playing was very good and the songs were ones we all knew from the 60s and 70s so quite a change from traditional Thai music. Two of us went back to the hotel by tuk tuk after dinner and the other two went back to the night market for more shopping. On the 24th we had the morning to sleep in and relax and get backed up for our trip back to Bangkok so sleep in I did. I don’t seem to have any particular notes from Chaing Mai itself so I guess that’s it for Chaing Mai.