Chiang Mai
Luke and I have spent the last few days enjoying the comforts of the city.. food with no rice.. cinemas.. air conditioning.. internet that isn't dial up.. Luke ate steak two dinners in a row, and I have finally begun to realise the value of chain stores.. yay for sizzler and their potato salad! Its been really nice after so long in the countryside!
Yesterday was a busy day, we visited a few different places. We found another temple cave, this one much larger than the first (and with fewer steps!).. Ban Cao it was called, its about an hour out of Chiang mai and the cave is covered with stone carvings and statues, most of the time you can hardly even see the carvings unless you are really looking because they are so well hidden in the stone of the cave. It was really beautiful. We also visited a tribal community, which I had mixed feelings about. We joined a guided tour to visit this place (its about 3 hours out of the city),they are a karen community that have migrated from the Mae Hong Son area specifically to be closer to the tourists (obviously because tourists mean money!). you can do two or three day treks up to the golden triangle to see ACTUAL hill tribes, but I didnt want to do that, it just didnt seem right to me to go traipsing through these peoples homes. Anyway I heard about the people who had come down especially to be accessible for the tourists and I figured I would feel better about visiting these people.. in the end I felt pretty bad but I am still glad I went.
The tribe we visited was a 'long neck' tribe. We were there for about an hour or so and we met some really nice people, we left a donation for each of the little kids and we bought some jewellery and some embroidery. In the end it wasnt the adults I felt sad for so much, after all they had made the decision to come down from the mountains to make money, but I felt really sad for the kids who just spend their whole lives being gawked at by tourists (me included). There was no schooling or anything like that (the village only has 18 people). Its a strange situation to be in because part of you wants to run away so that you aren't being part of the gawking group of tourists but at the same time without the tourists the people would be living in a village somewhere in the mountains with much less money for the things that they need.. its a catch 22.
We learnt quite a bit about the tribe though, the little girls have to start wearing the gold rings around their necks and their legs from the time they are one year old and each 1000 days they have to place a new ring on. They are really heavy (about a kilo each). I have heard lots of things about these ladies before - like that if they take the rings off they cant move their heads or that they remove some ribs to extend their necks - but their necks still worked even without the rings and all of their ribs were intact!! Noone could tell us why they do it though, the guide said that because the tribes people are nomadic by nature all of their stories were lost and noone really knows the real reason (but there are a lot of stories). All the women were walking around with the traditional dress and the gold rings around their necks and knees and all the men were walking around in levis and nikes.. very disturbing!
One of the little girls we met was just adorable, her name was makeda and she was really shy but just so cute! We also met a woman who had a 2 week old baby named laylee, she explained that her daughter was a special gift but that she was sad that she didnt have a boy, she didnt say why but the guide explained to us later that the boy children get taken to town for schooling but the girls have to stay in the village...
I am still torn about the whole visit. I am glad that I went and that I saw it but I dont know how I feel about it all. I guess its not my place to say what is right or wrong about it..
On that tour we met a family from Brisbane. They had been travelling for four and a half months which is not too surprising in itself but they were travelling with their KIDS! Shaylee who was about 11 and Bradley who was 6! I thought they were just on a holiday for a couple of weeks and I nearly died when they said how long they have been on the road for! They will be heading home pretty soon though - I think they are all happy about that, the kids included! I managed to get stuck with both of the kids at various points throughout the day, I dont know why but that always seems to happen to me! Luke thinks its hilarious! Shaylee was intent on telling me about every single thing she had bought throughout the entire journey and Bradley wanted to talk about Jurassic Park and other such things (most of which I couldnt understand). Then at lunchtime we were sitting down at a restaurant for lunch (with both the kids up the other end of the table!) and a little thai girl who was about 5 came up and tugged on the sleeve of my shirt, I turned around to see who it was and she started chatting away to me in Thai! I just kind of stared at her for a while (its hard to respond when you dont know what someone is saying) then after about three or four minutes her big sister came and made her leave and the little girl walked backwards out the door talking to me all the while.. it was very bizarre! I do wonder what she was saying to me though!
We have also visited another butterfly house and an orchid farm both of which were nice enough, although I dont know why we keep going to see things like that! They always seem like a good idea until you get there and realise that butterflies and flowers are actually pretty boring! We took some photos though, just to prove that we went!!
7 days til the end of our Thailand adventure.. I dont know whether to be sad about it or excited about going to Laos.. both I guess! We will be catching the train back down to Phitsanulok in the next few days and then making our way across to the Laos border via Lom Sak National Park and Khon Khen..
Oh, and there are more photos if you're interested.
xxx
Yesterday was a busy day, we visited a few different places. We found another temple cave, this one much larger than the first (and with fewer steps!).. Ban Cao it was called, its about an hour out of Chiang mai and the cave is covered with stone carvings and statues, most of the time you can hardly even see the carvings unless you are really looking because they are so well hidden in the stone of the cave. It was really beautiful. We also visited a tribal community, which I had mixed feelings about. We joined a guided tour to visit this place (its about 3 hours out of the city),they are a karen community that have migrated from the Mae Hong Son area specifically to be closer to the tourists (obviously because tourists mean money!). you can do two or three day treks up to the golden triangle to see ACTUAL hill tribes, but I didnt want to do that, it just didnt seem right to me to go traipsing through these peoples homes. Anyway I heard about the people who had come down especially to be accessible for the tourists and I figured I would feel better about visiting these people.. in the end I felt pretty bad but I am still glad I went.
The tribe we visited was a 'long neck' tribe. We were there for about an hour or so and we met some really nice people, we left a donation for each of the little kids and we bought some jewellery and some embroidery. In the end it wasnt the adults I felt sad for so much, after all they had made the decision to come down from the mountains to make money, but I felt really sad for the kids who just spend their whole lives being gawked at by tourists (me included). There was no schooling or anything like that (the village only has 18 people). Its a strange situation to be in because part of you wants to run away so that you aren't being part of the gawking group of tourists but at the same time without the tourists the people would be living in a village somewhere in the mountains with much less money for the things that they need.. its a catch 22.
We learnt quite a bit about the tribe though, the little girls have to start wearing the gold rings around their necks and their legs from the time they are one year old and each 1000 days they have to place a new ring on. They are really heavy (about a kilo each). I have heard lots of things about these ladies before - like that if they take the rings off they cant move their heads or that they remove some ribs to extend their necks - but their necks still worked even without the rings and all of their ribs were intact!! Noone could tell us why they do it though, the guide said that because the tribes people are nomadic by nature all of their stories were lost and noone really knows the real reason (but there are a lot of stories). All the women were walking around with the traditional dress and the gold rings around their necks and knees and all the men were walking around in levis and nikes.. very disturbing!
One of the little girls we met was just adorable, her name was makeda and she was really shy but just so cute! We also met a woman who had a 2 week old baby named laylee, she explained that her daughter was a special gift but that she was sad that she didnt have a boy, she didnt say why but the guide explained to us later that the boy children get taken to town for schooling but the girls have to stay in the village...
I am still torn about the whole visit. I am glad that I went and that I saw it but I dont know how I feel about it all. I guess its not my place to say what is right or wrong about it..
On that tour we met a family from Brisbane. They had been travelling for four and a half months which is not too surprising in itself but they were travelling with their KIDS! Shaylee who was about 11 and Bradley who was 6! I thought they were just on a holiday for a couple of weeks and I nearly died when they said how long they have been on the road for! They will be heading home pretty soon though - I think they are all happy about that, the kids included! I managed to get stuck with both of the kids at various points throughout the day, I dont know why but that always seems to happen to me! Luke thinks its hilarious! Shaylee was intent on telling me about every single thing she had bought throughout the entire journey and Bradley wanted to talk about Jurassic Park and other such things (most of which I couldnt understand). Then at lunchtime we were sitting down at a restaurant for lunch (with both the kids up the other end of the table!) and a little thai girl who was about 5 came up and tugged on the sleeve of my shirt, I turned around to see who it was and she started chatting away to me in Thai! I just kind of stared at her for a while (its hard to respond when you dont know what someone is saying) then after about three or four minutes her big sister came and made her leave and the little girl walked backwards out the door talking to me all the while.. it was very bizarre! I do wonder what she was saying to me though!
We have also visited another butterfly house and an orchid farm both of which were nice enough, although I dont know why we keep going to see things like that! They always seem like a good idea until you get there and realise that butterflies and flowers are actually pretty boring! We took some photos though, just to prove that we went!!
7 days til the end of our Thailand adventure.. I dont know whether to be sad about it or excited about going to Laos.. both I guess! We will be catching the train back down to Phitsanulok in the next few days and then making our way across to the Laos border via Lom Sak National Park and Khon Khen..
Oh, and there are more photos if you're interested.
xxx