This was our first proper day tour in ChiangMai. What amazed me when I first got out of our hotel was the conditions of the streets outside. While the area was lined with the night market the night before, it was totally cleared up by morning. Not a single speck of rubbish was to be seen on the streets and the only visible evidence that anything had actually been there the night before was bags of trash being piled up by every street corner, which was promptly taken away later that morning. I seriously wonder if this was the common practice or if it only happened in tourist districts.
We were kind of lucky to have arrived during the King’s birthday celebrations. So, there were some rather interesting things to learn about Thais. Thais love their king and he is like a father to them. Since it is his birthday, there were many altars set up around town where people placed offerings to him. While we were being driven through the streets to our first tour stop, we were witness to a pindapata ceremony, where people lined the streets giving alms to the monks who came out in full force that morning. This reminded me that Thailand is a very Buddhist country in the Hinaya tradition.
Our tour guide also regaled us with stories of his time spent in the monastery. According to him, it was fairly standard practice for poor people to go into this sort of life after they reach a certain age. For one, they would have food to eat and they were given an education in the monastery. After spending 16 years of his life in the monastery, he left to find a way in this world. So, although Thai people may be poor, they are not poor-poor. At the very least, they will have food to eat and a chance at a basic education. Personally, I think that this is something that we are sorely lacking in Malaysia. Our poor are reduced to begging on the streets (although it can be argued that even beggars make quite a good living in KL).
Anyway, our first stop of the day was to visit some local tribes who worked the poppy fields. Alright, that’s not all that they do, but according to our guide, it is their primary source of income. If you’ve never seen a poppy plant, that’s one in the photo. It’s a really lovely flower and it will not be our last encounter with the plant during our trip. Northern Thailand is afterall, part of the Golden Triangle. According to our guide, it is called such because drugs used to be traded in gold in this region, weight for weight. He then told us grand stories about the King of Opium who lives further up north and stuff that would make the Corleone family look like sissies.
Seeing that we were a family of Buddhists (Theravada tradition), our guide decided to take us to see a touristy temple – Doi Suthep. The reason that it is a touristy temple is because it is located on top of a mountain and provides an excellent viewpoint overlooking the entire city of ChiangMai. However, it was particularly misty (or foggy or smoggy) that day and I did not manage to get a clear photo of the city. It would be a great place to take a night-shot of the city though. To make matters worse, the golden Chedi that was built 700 years ago, was being refurbished and there was too much scaffolding in place to get a good photo as well.
After lunch, it was time to do a little shopping. No trip to Thailand would be complete without a visit to the local jewelers who sell precious stones. I even managed to snag myself a tie-pin there, though the selection was severely limited. The entire store seemed to be 99% dedicated to women, which doesn’t surprise me one bit. We also visited a honey factory. Now, you may not think that there’s anything special about honey, but these particular honey bees, feed off poppy flowers! It’s a bit of a stretch but I guess that the bees must be buzzing all the time, while spreading all the pollen. Anyway, it was an interesting visit to me because I managed to learn a few things about honey that I did not know before.
No shopping visit to Thailand would be complete without silk. So, we visited the local Shinawatra Silk factory. Now, if that name rings a bell, it’s the family business of their deposed PM, Thaksin Shinawatra. I ended up giving them some of my money in return for a few custom made silk shirts. They sure have a huge selection of silk cloth of every colour imaginable! It was at this point that our tour guide began to tell us some stories about Thai politics (for some reason, the Bangkok Post seems particularly thin on this subject). According to him, Thaksin’s power base is the North and the people up there love him. Thaksin basically took a page out of the old political playbook by helping the poor clean up the streets and giving them an education. That is why, when there are political problems, it only seems to happen in the south.
That evening, we ended up having a touristy dinner, with cultural performances to boot. During the dinner, we were once again visited by the cute local girls in costumes and photographer and had our photographs taken again. Anyway, it was during these cultural performances that the mythical Thai beauties began to appear. Our guide kept raving about ChiangMai beauties but there were few to be seen on the streets. According to my friend, most of the beautiful ones would have all gone down to Bangkok to work, which made perfect sense to me. So, the only ones left seem to be the ones who managed to secure gainful employment locally. According to my sister, the local spa (recommended by our guide) was also filled with beauties. Unfortunately I did not join them for that.
After our dinner, we once again visited the night market. This time, I noticed something else that was very entrepreneurial – mobile bank kiosks! The streets were littered with these little things. They are both an ATM machine and a Bureau de Change in one. There were different ones from different banks and financial institutions. It is so obvious a tourist thing, to make money off tourists, but it certainly beats having to go around hunting for a money changer when you’re trying to haggle down the price with a stall owner.
One last thing that I feel needs to be mentioned – there are so many skilled craftsmen in ChiangMai. They literally fill the streets. You can actually see them working alongside their little stalls at the night market. That is why the labour cost here is so cheap and the reason why a lot of these things are selling really well. Of course, there are a lot of standard goods and our guide literally warned us about the Made in China syndrome inflicting his city. However, you can also clearly see that there is a lot of products that are locally made, and of high quality. The suit that I had tailored, was certified by our family tailor as being of extremely good craftsmanship – certainly not something we can get in Malaysia without paying a handsome premium.
Sybreon Ones Nought 