Chiang Mai Thailand

October 2012

Chiang Mai

Cappuccino art

After getting our fill of Chinese tour buses, bustling markets and tuk-tuk drivers, we headed north to the ancient capitol of Chiang Mai for a bit of calm. Our sleeper train had 2 stacked berths that were cozy nests inside gold curtains that ran around the beds. The ride was accented with screeching brakes and jerky starts until we were all awakened at 5:30 am and told there was a train accident, and we needed to abandon our berths and board tour buses for the rest of the trip. This maneuver added another 2 hours onto the original 14 hour trip. Later we learned that these “accidents” happen often because the tracks are in disrepair, but no one is hurt, just delayed.

Chiang Mai’s center has an ancient walled city with a moat running around it making for a charming ambiance that foreigners have flocked to. Expats are everywhere running restaurants and shops, and spreading Western influence. At one restaurant we had great cappuccinos complete with foam art. They were the perfect complement to sticky rice and mangoes, yum.

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

One of the most famous Buddhist temples in Thailand is located at the top of a mountain just outside Chiang Mai. The story goes that a sacred white elephant was let loose to wander in the jungle and when it stopped, that is where the temple would be built. It came to this place and lay down and died, poor elephant. We made our pilgrimage to the temple via a tuk-tuk and a pickup truck fitted with benches flying up the windy roads a high speed, slowing only for the hairpin turns. Still alive but a bit dizzy we arrived at the foot of the temple stairs which were covered with venders selling all kinds of things: clothes, toys, bags, food, gems, and just about anything else you might be tempted to buy.

Dragon Stairs to Nirvana

Dragon Stairway to Temple

350 stairs guarded by dragons whose tails were covered by colorful ceramic tiles and paints ran all the way up to the temple. A very impressive staircase, I must say, that led not only to an impressive temple but a stunning view of the jungle and city below.

Buddhist temple

Many Many Buddhas

The temple plaza had several gold clad pagodas, each holding many Buddhas, ranging from very large to very small, decked out in necklaces, silk robes and flowers. It seems that if one Buddha is good, many is better. This temple had many, many offering boxes with designated recipients including a temple in the USA. Bells of all sizes were everywhere and worshipers rang the bells and brought flowers and incense to the Buddha statues. Because it was a holy day, monks were on hand to bless the masses as we knelt before them. It was a very colorful place, as saffron robed monks circulated among the tourists, and little hill tribe girls danced with pink and blue umbrellas to a band playing traditional northern Thailand instruments.

Hill Tribe Dancers

Hill Tribe Village Trek

Although Chiang Mai is calmer than Bangkok, it is still a city, and we wanted to get out into the country so we signed onto a 3 day trek to a Karen village. Our trekking mates were 4 Dutch and one Aussie, all about 30 - very delightful young men and one woman. 

First Stop - Elephants

Baby elephant playing tag with trainer.

To our surprise our first stop was to ride elephants. Not something we were looking for but it turned out to be really fun because we had a 2 year old baby elephant with us who was full of antics, running into the bush with the trainers in hot pursuit, and at one point the mother elephant ran after her baby with her 2 riders hanging on for dear life. She got her baby back with no problem and we proceeded to the elephant drive-through, where we bought bananas for the elephants. It was great to have them reach their trunks up to us and gently take the banana from our hands. 

Our hungry elephant

McBanana drive-through

More bananas please!

Karen Village

Hill Tribe Country

Our pickup truck dropped us off in a National Park and we proceeded to hike over a mountain to a lovely waterfall for lunch. To everyone’s delight this was a challenging hike on a remote trail that wound through the jungle, over fences, along rice paddies, and past villages. It was a great hike. Beautiful bright green fields tucked in tiny valleys with water buffalo with big black horns curved around their heads grazing at the edges. Huts with thatched roofs perched on the hillsides overlooking their fields.

Our home for the night was in a Karen village of about 15 homes with roofs woven of grass or banana leaves. All the homes were on stilts about 6 feet above the ground providing a place for the pigs and chickens to live under each house. 

Pigs under the houses.

Karen Village

Our accommodations had thin mattresses and mosquito nets hung over each bed. The happy house as our guide called it, had a shower, a squat toilet and big tube of water with a dipper to flush. Very sophisticated. This “hotel” was run by the matriarch of the village and she brought us rice and noodles in big pots. After a delicious dinner of curry, cooked by our guide, we were serenaded by 10 of the village children around a camp fire that they built for us.  They sang about 10 songs at the top of their lungs, and then asked us to sing to them. Too cute.

Karen children singing to us.

Who are those strange people?

7-Eleven Stop
The next day we hiked through more beautiful rice fields and rain forests and had lunch at a small hut next to a rice paddy, where we had noodles and chestnuts we had gathered in the forest and roasted over the fire. Two women were there herding their 3 water buffaloes into a small pen next to us. They provided bottled water for us that they kept in a cooler of ice. Coolers of iced beer, coke and water appeared by magic at every stop. Our guide called these stops 7-Elevens.

Hiking through the rice paddies.

Bamboo Toaster
That night we camped by a waterfalls that was our shower for the day and slept on woven plastic mats on the wood floor of another large dorm hut. Not so much sleep as tossing and turning. Breakfast was cooked over the camp fire with a toaster made of split bamboo to hold the bread over the fire. Nescafé is the coffee choice or tea in big teakettle set right in the fire. Neither are great considering they grow both coffee and tea here. Oh well when in Rome....

Bamboo toaster and Nescafe

Bamboo Rafting
Our last day of hiking ended at a river were we boarded 25 foot long, 3 feet wide bamboo rafts, four on each. The captain stood at the front with a long pole to steer and we were off down the river of class 1 and 2 rapids. No one was asked if they could swim and no life jackets. We were immediately soaked as we sat on the raft that was mostly submerged. The pole man was very skilled at missing all the rocks as we sped through the rapids, but the end of the raft, where Jenise was sitting, was often swept around and hit rocks or low branches. But she hung on, and we had a great ride. They even let Jenise and I ride through the last shoot which was a 3 foot drop. What fun, it made our canoeing trips seem easy.

Mr. P
Our 62 year old  guide was a character whose favorite sayings were “Oh My Buddha” and “Have a good life” and “Same, same - only different” which he used in response to everything. He told jokes and did match tricks to keep us entertained after dinner. He used to be a farmer but could not make any money. He said “no money, no honey, no baby” so he became a guide for 20 years in the hills where he used to live.

Our Guide Mr. P.

Back in our Guest House we are in the lap of luxury with a hot shower, soft bed and clean white sheets. Ahhhhhhh. We even have real coffee that we brought from home. Life is good.