Chiang Mai

March 5 - Chiang Mai

We've arrived at another beautiful area of Thailand called Chiang Mai. It's a beautiful day here; more seasonal for us at 32C. We are staying at the Green Lake Resort, a nice resort over looking a lake. When we settled into our room, we had a light mid afternoon lunch by using room service and had a nice swim in our outdoor pool. This evening we went to a Cultural event that involved a dinner and a show. What a difference eating on the floor. They served unlimited food. Just as we were finishing, the cultural dance/show started. The beautiful show, which told a story of the culture of the area, included young girls doing a number of traditional dances, 2 guys swinging swords, kids and adults did a foot/pole dance and selected members of the audience even participated in a dance. At the end of this segment of the show, we went outside to a barn like building where they continued to do a number of traditional dances from the northern tribes. What a truly enjoyable evening! I have to tell you, the costumes for the whole evening were intricately decorated with flowing bright colours.

Tomorrow, we plan on going to a morning tour of Chang Mai. In the afternoon, we're booked for a 3 hour massage therapy.. get this..an herbal steam, body scrub, body wrap, aroma bath, aroma body massage, facial treatment and head-back/shoulder massage.

March 6



The day started off pretty early since we wanted to take part in the breakfast that came with the room. Our tour guide picked us up right on time and we were off by 8:00. The great thing is that it is off season here so the tour van, driver and guide were all ours. We were the only ones on the tour. The first stop was a temple that was high on the mountain. The guide told us that a head monk put this relic of buddha on this white elephant and followed the elephant up the mountain. Where the elephant stopped was where the temple was built. The temple had 360 steps up to it. The stairs going up were all decorated and the sides had a serpant's body on both sides. You can see the pictures. Once we were up there was again some amazing detail in everything. The guide was very helpful in helping us understand what everything meant and what one had to do to get good luck etc. We went around this bell shape building, which held the relic, 3 times and then lit some incense and two candles. Then one is to make a wish/prayer. If the wish comes true then one has to return to the site with an offering to Buddha. Since Buddha was human and not god the offering can pretty much be of anything. We have seen food, drink, (even a juice box). After seeing the temple site we came back down the steps where like is the norm here... lots of vendors. We got a few more things. The guide then took us to a gem factory to see how the jewellery is made. That was cool but we are not "not into" it. Sorry to those who are but man was there some nice stuff for cheap. We came back into the city area and saw a few other temples and a quick tour of the city and we got dropped back off at the hotel around noon.

At 1:30 the spa's van picked us up. The afternoon was spent just being pampered. Although it is always so hot here and getting into that aroma steam tent with tempertures I'm sure near 50C wasn't the best idea but I guess our PORES WERE WELL CLEANED OUT. The 3 hours went by so fast and before we knew it we were back at our hotel. We were not there long when we got the hotel van to drive us back into the city to the night market.

Okay this place was crazy with vendors. We have never seen so many stalls and items. It's okay if you like to shop. You MUST save some money and come here to Thailand. I'm kind of glad we are only half way through our trip and still have to carry things. Otherwise that extra suitcase we have might already be used up. We did get a few things however. The most challenging thing about the night was getting back to our hotel. It took us by hotel van about 20 minutes to get into the market so we kind of was hoping to get a taxi back. Well it seems that there are not a lot of taxis but tons of tuk tuks. However, for long distances they are noisy and dusty... well we couldn't find a cab so had to take a tuk tuk. The driver said he knew where the hotel was but man oh man did he take the back roads getting back. We thought for sure we were become white slaves or forces into monkhood :)

March 7th our last morning in Chiang Mai

We had not planned the excursion today because we didn't think we could with our flight back to Bangkok leaving at 2:30. However, the guide we had yesterday said they would be happy to do something for us. So again the same driver and guide picked us up at 8:00 and we headed off to the elephant camp. Before getting to the camp they stopped at this nice orchid farm where we got to see and learn a bit about orchids. They even have some nice jewellery they make with the orchids. We even got an orchid in this bottle in a gel solution. Hope we can get it back into Canada. Oh well if not it wasn't very expensive. They also had a butterfly house here too.

Before we left Thailand we had hoped to see elephants (they are wild here in a few places away from humans). This has to be one of our favourite things we have ever done on any of our trips EVER! You can see by the pictures that we had a lot of fun. We fed them (fyi... those big noses [aka trunks] are powerful and "wet") However, they are also as gentle and can be. We sat and watched a show where they did many things from soccer to painting. It was cool to see how they can hold a paint brush and with a bit of help from the trainer (the trainer just squeezes the elephants ear from what we could tell) the elephant would paint. The trainer would choose the colours. After the show we got up on this 3 metre beast (see pictures) and they took us up a mountain trail and across some water for an hour. That was pretty cool. A few times the elephant wanted to do something else but the driver got him back on track by talking to him. One time the driver got off to take some pictures of us and we thought 'I hope this elephant does what he is told now since we pretty much don't speak elephant'. Before we knew it, our time at the camp was up and we headed to our next stop.

The guide suggested this spot if we had enough time and we wanted to, so we made sure we had the time. The next stop was the tiger zoo. Well it was more like a place where they breed tigers. There are only about 200 left in the wild in parts of Thailand so it is important to raise them. This place has one of the best luck in raising tigers, so far they have raised 27. For about $10.00 you could go in a cage with an adult, mid size, 6 month or a baby tiger. We thought an adult... well that could eat you... so we went with the 5 month old twins. They are about the size of an adult medium size dog. All we had to do is be careful of their mouth. Like any young animal they like to play and playing with each other is not the same as our white flesh. Anyway we had a great time with them, as you can see. From the tigers we got back into the van and they drove us back to the airport for our trip back to Bangkok. If you are ever get to Chiang Mai, let us know. You have to use Tour East and our tour guide.

When we leave Chiang Mai, we will go back to Bangkok for a couple of nights and then head to Phuket for 4 days. Stay tuned!
 
 
Our room at Green Lake Resort

The view from our room

The food at the show...floor eating at its best

The show/dance

360 steps to the top

(Bottom- ringing of bells to get ones wish)

Getting blessed by a monk

(Bottom- our guide at the Orchid farm)

The local tribal kids in traditional costume

(Bottom- the orchids)

The Elephant camp; Elephant putting a hat on Greg

Elephants getting their morning scrub down

Giving a Wai (the Thai bow)

They really are painting.  This one is abstract but the one below isn't

Ok driver... don't go too far away for that pic

(Below- Tigers at the breeding farm and yes you can pet them)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one month old