Chiang Mai - Northern Thailand
It was sad saying goodbye to the family, who we had stayed with over the past few weeks, we made them a nice photo album to remember us and the fun times we had had though. Again I was shocked by the airport, we literally waited outside in the street until the plain flew in before we walked through the tiny building straight onto our tiny plane. When we arrived at Manila airport we had a few hours to kill, We soon got bored with the two shops and 3 food places. It was pretty dreadful considering it is supposed to be a popular airport! I ate an awful noodle soup and Jena forced down a slimy but sweet ham sandwich.
Instead of any long flights we just had four short flights, so all of which we had to pay extortionate prices for even for a drink of water, It is so frustrating not being able to take a drink onto the plane. Jenna and I spent time plodding up and down the airport looking for different places to sit, also because of the time we were flying most of the restaurants and all of the shops were shut too :(
As predicted the rest of our journey was pretty dreadful. After killing another 8 hours in Bangkok we went to check onto you Chiang Mai flight, I had known all along that the flight had a 15k limit so knowing that I had 17 k when I flew out of Korea I had made sure that I had got rid of some things from my bag. So despite re packing my bag in Bacolod and ditching yet more stuff I still managed to have nearer 17k of stuff at the weigh in. As predicted I had to get rid of more stuff, I took out 4 large books and a few clothes and rammed them into my carry on luggage and my bag suddenly went down to just 14k, I was relieved that I didn't have to throw anything away and happily departed to Chiang mai!
2nd July – Arrive in Chiang Mai, a Hill tribe museum and the Night Market.
We arrived at about 8 am, just as the day was beginning I the beautiful city of Chiang Mai, I immediately notice a huge difference since coming from the Philippines. The place is so clean, there are many foreigners and the best thing is no one seems to stare at us! I love being able to blend in and not be noticed and stop feeling so self conscious.
The city is surrounded by a mat and castle walls and we are staying in a nice little hostel called the Eagle House, just out of the city centre. It is perfect, nice and quiet but walking distance from the hustle and bustle of the city centre. We checked in and then enjoyed a plate of bacon and eggs before heading to our room with the idea of a couple of hours kip before we went out to make the most of our day. Those illusions were soon shattered when a group of builders came to repair a roof right outside our door, scraping, banging and shouting as loudly as they could, despite wearing ear plugs Jenna and I decided that the idea was useless and that we should go and explore the city.
Firstly we decided to go and find the “Hill tribes museum” in order to find out some information on the famous hill tribes that are so prevalent in the North of Thailand, as we were planning a hill tribe trek in two days time. We stumbled out into the mid day sun and waved down a Tuk Tuk (a small, thin, open sided 3 wheeled vehicle used as taxis throughout Thailand) When we arrived at the Museum, I was surprise to find not a sole there. All we could hear was people singing in the little restaurants on the other side of the lake. The museum, built in 1965, was very informative. It exhibited the lifestyles of the 9 hill tribes in Thailand. They are called the ‘Akah, Lahu, Lisu, Yao, Hmong, Karen, Lua and the H’tin’. They all remain in the hills under strong traditional societies, seen by many of the Thai people as like peasants. I found out that there are about 750,777 people in the 9 tribes’ and they live in 3,503 villages dispersed over 20 provinces. They are not Buddhist and they are not Christian, they are ‘Animists’ which basically means they believe in spirits which inhabit the earth, water, fire, forests, mountains, their villages and houses. They believe that good spirits help and protect and that bad spirits bring bad luck and sickness. They give offerings to all sprits, to thank good ones and to try and keep the bad ones happy. I also enjoyed looking at all the colourful pictures and clothes from the tribes, reading about each one individually and how whey lived, using looms to make their own clothes and how they are self sufficient, living off the land growing all the vegetables, fruit and ice that they need and farming their own animals. At four o’clock a little man came in and started bolting up the windows and closing the doors, we then decided that we should probably leave, despite him saying a word. Much to our surprise, the Tuk Tuk driver was waiting for us outside. We had planed to catch a local bus home but felt a little obligated to take our ride back with him (I guess this was how he wanted us to feel) but he was nice enough and cost us less than a quid each!
We decided that he could drop us off at the ‘Night Bazaar’ However it only being 4.30 it was not yet fully open so we spent a few hours looking around a small Buddhist temple and eating noodles in a little restaurant. By the time we resurfaced at about 6.30 the place was thriving. Bright little stalls everywhere, lights and people calling us from every angle. We were overwhelmed. It was hard to resist the many beautiful clothes, bags, jewelry, fake designer watches and anything else you could imagine. We escaped by about 10 o’clock with only a bracelet each and a bag of fruit! It would have been easy to go crazy in there ad although the bargaining is hard work, it is so satisfying when you manage to third the asking price. I would definitely want to come back here in the future when I have lots of money for all these beautiful and unusual things! It is amazing how the smalls of the food being cooked in the strrets and the herbs from the markets are bringing back so many memories to me, from when I came to Thailand as a child with my parents. It is crazy how smells can be such catalysts, I can even remember some of the language ad words I learnt all those years ago!
3rd July – The factories and a Khantoke dinner
The North Thailand people are famous for their beautiful things and their handicraft skills, so Jena and I decided to get up early and go and see a demonstration of these in Bosang/ Sankamphaeng , an area just outside Chiang Mai. We jumped in a ‘seelaw’ (truck style taxi) went to 10 factories in all, I call them factories, but they certainly wet like any factories that I had even seen before. With statues, fountains and huge beautiful gates outside each one. Every one was presented beautifully and so well maintained.
The first place we went to was: ‘the silver factory’ whereby I bought myself a lovely ring and we watched people carefully filing and polishing jewelry, bowls and spoons. Next was ‘the cotton factory’ where we saw women weaving at phenomenal speeds. The third was ‘the precious stones factory’ where we got show about how they find and polish up beautiful stones. We learnt about our birth stones and wished we had money to buy more jewelry. Fourthly was ‘the leather factory’ where we saw bags, wallets and shoes made out of elephant, stingray, goat, snake, crocodile and iguana skins. We asked if they had any cow leather and they proceeded to tell us that this was the cheapest and works leather to use! The fifth was the ‘silk factory’ which I found the most interesting because they showed us all the silk worms in their various stages. As caterpillars feasting on leaves, to cocoons, to the silk worm pupa. This brought back some horrible memories of Korea and the dreadful smell of them cooking in the street. I know that my mum would have actually been sick if she had smelled them! I rushed past that bit as quickly as I could in order to watch the ladies weave silk from the cocoons. The sixth was ‘the Jade factory’ where we were taught all about the different types of Jade. How the light and multi-coloured Jade comes from Burma and how the dark green Jadeite comes from China. There was also Thai porcelain and ceramics to marvel at. The seventh was ‘lacquer-ware production’ whereby we could witness pottery being made and how they apply gold leaf to things, then there was the ‘pain factory’ where men hand painted fans and umbrellas made from silk and paper. Ninth was the ‘handicraft factory’ with many beautiful things made from ‘saa paper’, the finally was the ‘woodcrafts and antique furniture factory’ where there was so many beautiful carvings, including little ornaments, chairs, beds and even life sized elephants. Everything was so beautifully doe and just perfect. I could see my dad in this shop and I know that he couldn’t have come away empty handed. Everything was so much cheaper here than we would find in the shops, I must say it was difficult to resist temptation. We were exhausted by the time we had finished, partly because we had missed a night of sleep and partly because we had been shopping and plodding round for about 6 hours straight. We decided to head home for a nap.
That evening we booked ourselved in for a traditional ‘Khantoke dinner’ in old Chiang Mia’s center. At 7 o’clock we got picked up by our taxi and take to the restaurant. A ‘Khantoke’ is a pedestal tray’ used as a small dining table, usually made of teak wood. We arrived in the thriving restaurant and were given a garland of fresh flowers to wear round our necks (they smelt like lotus flowers, but were much smaller) We were then show to our table ad served a huge ‘Khantoke’ of food. We had the traditional fare consisting of: fried chicken, Burmese ok curry, friend cabbage, pork in tomato chili paste (which was rather spicy), Pork scratching (for dipping in the paste), cucumbers, fried bananas and another sweet crispy dist that I have forgotten the name of. All this was served with both plain boiled ice and sticky rice, which was served in a bamboo basket. For desert was fiend rice crispy type things and coffee. It was delicious.
Throughout the meal we were entertained by classical dances, such as the fingernail dance, sword dance and the beautiful candle dace (among many more). Once we had finished everyone was lead outside to the ‘Khuang Hong Kham’, which was basically a outdoor court yard. Here we watched genuine hill tribe people showing their dances that they have been doing since their ancestors times. I was amazed as we watched little kids hopping about trying not to get their legs caught in clapping bamboo poles, boys with drums and gongs, people dressed up as birds ad other strange beasts and women galloping round in all their heavy clothes. I really enjoyed the ‘Fire sword dance’ and the ‘winnowing dance, where by pretty girls pranced around with sieves showing how they separated husks from the rice grains. It was a fantastic evening, but before the night was over we headed back to the night bazaar in order for Jenna to buy some more t.shirts (as we have to be covered up when visiting the hill tribes tomorrow) I accidentally bought a beautiful flowy skirt, covered with embroidery and sequins. I worked hard for it though and got the guy down from 7 pounds to just over 2. I went to bed content
- Posted by emily1183 on 06/07/2007.
- emily1183's site
Please sign in or join etribes to add comments.
