A family prepares to release their sky lantern.
Goodbye.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Out with the old
Tonight I hit the town on my last night in Chiang Mai. Hopefully it's my last night; I'm planning to head to the bus station early tomorrow morning to try and catch the first bus to Chiang Rai, further north. OK, truth be told, the main reason I hit the town was to satisfy my craving for mango sticky rice. (I think they put an addictive ingredient in there honestly.) Well, I satisfied my craving, bought a pair of earrings, and said goodbye to some old energy. As I was walking back to my guesthouse, I heard firecrackers going off and saw sky lanterns floating serenely into the night sky. Sky lanterns are these sort of mini hot air balloons. They're used for festivals and special occasions here. There were many of them in the sky last night as well; as I was walking to dinner I looked up and thought, "Wow, why are the stars orange? And why are they moving?" Turns out they weren't stars, they were sky lanterns. It's believed to be good luck to release one, and is symbolic of letting your problems and worries float away. What problems and worries could I possibly have, you may ask, I'm on semi-permanent vacation! Well, anyone who knows me knows I have an overactive mind and semi-permanent vacation means lots of time for reflection, which is good, of course, but too much of anything is never good. So as I watched my sky lantern float away I used it as a meditation of sorts, to let go of all the negative thoughts that sometimes cloud my mind. And as I started back on my walk, I actually felt lighter. It's a good reminder that each and every day we have a choice, to either dwell on the negative or focus on the positive. I'm not usually one for New Year's resolutions, but this year I am making one, and that is to be more positive. To quote a lovely message my friend sent me on New Year's Eve, "Like birds let us leave behind what we don't need to carry - grudges, sadness, pain, fear, regrets. Life is beautiful, enjoy it." And on that note I wish everyone a new year filled with hope, happiness, and peace.
A family prepares to release their sky lantern.
Goodbye.
A family prepares to release their sky lantern.
Goodbye.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Happy New Year!
I will dub 2010 the Year of the Elephant, just because I got to spend my New Year's Eve day with a group of amazing pachyderms. Wow. This experience was everything I was hoping for and more - by far the coolest touristy thing I have ever done in my life. Elephants are so amazing. They are enormous, first of all, and you really get a sense of how strong they are when you are standing right next to them. But amazingly, they are also so gentle. We spent about 8 hours at the Elephant Nature Park. If you Google it you will find tons of information. The woman who founded the park is also amazing. She is totally hands-on and inspiring, one of those rare people who have found a passion and made it their life's mission. She has 34 elephants currently, including 2 babies, on a swath of land that covers 150 acres, and they have recently purchased more land so they can rescue more elephants. Rescue from what, you may ask? Well, it's interesting because elephants are such a symbol of Thailand, but their story is complex. Basically there are wild elephants and domestic ones. For years domestic elephants were used in the logging industry, but logging was banned in 1989 leaving thousands of elephants unemployed and unable to be released back into the wild.
So Lek (the founder) has taken in several elephants who used to work in the logging industry. Unfortunately they were often mistreated. One of the elephants had been blinded because she refused to work after she lost her baby. Another had been addicted to amphetamines which the owners gave her so she would work all day at one operation, and all night at another. The stories were heartbreaking, but now the elephants are in a much better place. They are treated with the utmost love and respect by everyone who works and volunteers there.
Another one of the park's projects is a traveling medical clinic to care for elephants in the surrounding villages, some of whom are used for illegal street begging. In Bangkok sometimes you will see (although I did not) someone on the street with their elephant offering to let you feed it for money. They make good money off the deal, but it is very unhealthy for the elephants. They get stressed by the lights and noise and sometimes get hit and injured, or worse, by the passing cars. Some of the elephants at the park were also formerly involved in this line of work.
I learned a lot today, and I took almost 400 pictures, which frankly is a little obnoxious. I was that annoying tourist that the guide had to keep rounding up because we were moving on in this direction or that. I was just so fascinated by these creatures, though, and was more or less in my own world the whole day. I learned that it's actually OK to ride elephants if it's through a company that treats them well. I also learned that elephants sleep only 4 hours a night, but spend about 18 hours a day eating or looking for food (I knew there was a reason I loved these guys so much!), and eat up to 10% of their bodyweight each day. We watched a video about how they train them, which is not pretty. Another thing that Lek is working on is training the two babies at the park using positive reinforcement, as opposed to the brutal methods traditionally used, in the hopes that she can change people's minds. She's not opposed to domesticating elephants, just the methods used to do so.
Anyway, it was an amazing day, a great way to start the new year. Here's to a year of health, happiness, and dreams come true.
A group of elephants grazes after their bath.
Bath time!
Making friends with Jokia, the blind elephant.
So Lek (the founder) has taken in several elephants who used to work in the logging industry. Unfortunately they were often mistreated. One of the elephants had been blinded because she refused to work after she lost her baby. Another had been addicted to amphetamines which the owners gave her so she would work all day at one operation, and all night at another. The stories were heartbreaking, but now the elephants are in a much better place. They are treated with the utmost love and respect by everyone who works and volunteers there.
Another one of the park's projects is a traveling medical clinic to care for elephants in the surrounding villages, some of whom are used for illegal street begging. In Bangkok sometimes you will see (although I did not) someone on the street with their elephant offering to let you feed it for money. They make good money off the deal, but it is very unhealthy for the elephants. They get stressed by the lights and noise and sometimes get hit and injured, or worse, by the passing cars. Some of the elephants at the park were also formerly involved in this line of work.
I learned a lot today, and I took almost 400 pictures, which frankly is a little obnoxious. I was that annoying tourist that the guide had to keep rounding up because we were moving on in this direction or that. I was just so fascinated by these creatures, though, and was more or less in my own world the whole day. I learned that it's actually OK to ride elephants if it's through a company that treats them well. I also learned that elephants sleep only 4 hours a night, but spend about 18 hours a day eating or looking for food (I knew there was a reason I loved these guys so much!), and eat up to 10% of their bodyweight each day. We watched a video about how they train them, which is not pretty. Another thing that Lek is working on is training the two babies at the park using positive reinforcement, as opposed to the brutal methods traditionally used, in the hopes that she can change people's minds. She's not opposed to domesticating elephants, just the methods used to do so.
Anyway, it was an amazing day, a great way to start the new year. Here's to a year of health, happiness, and dreams come true.
A group of elephants grazes after their bath.
Bath time!
Making friends with Jokia, the blind elephant.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
2552 and other revelations
So it turns out it's the year 2552 here in Thailand, according to the Buddhist calendar, which begins from the birth of Buddha as opposed to the birth of Christ. Interesting. This explains the date on my boat ticket to Phuket and the signs I've seen for the Chiang Mai marathon around town.
Today I got out of the city a bit, taking a shared taxi up to Doi Suthep, a temple on a mountaintop. Interestingly, there was a sign for all foreign visitors to proceed this way to pay an entry fee, but Thai nationals get in free. Hmm... yeah, I just went in anyway. Granted, it was only like a dollar, but still. Anyway, this is not a Thai concept; in India it's common for Indians to pay one very low price for entry into things while foreigners pay way more. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Anyway, tomorrow is the big day I've been waiting for in some ways. One of the attractions here in Thailand is the elephants, so tomorrow I will spend the day at the Elephant Nature Park, walking with, bathing, and just generally hanging out, up close and personal, with them. I'm so, so, so excited, as elephants are by far my favorite animal. I'm hoping to get some amazing pictures of this experience. Apparently we need to bring a change of clothes as well, since you understandably get pretty wet when bathing an elephant.
There's another attraction up this way that I'm debating doing, and that is the Tiger Kingdom. Here, too, you apparently can get up close and personal with the tigers, except that they are essentially drugged up, to what extent I'm not sure, so that they don't, ya know, eat the tourists. Ha. So therein lies the controversy - sedated tigers. I've heard it's pretty amazing, though, not surprisingly. So we'll see. I expect I'll be heading out of Chiang Mai in the next 2 or 3 days, however, up to Chiang Rai and then crossing the border into Laos as my 30-day visa will expire shortly. From there the trip is up in the air - cross back into Thailand? Head south through Laos into Cambodia? Any thoughts?
I believe these are lotus flowers. They are for sale outside the temple for people to give as offerings.
Why do people do this to their dogs? Paris would never put up with this.
Today I got out of the city a bit, taking a shared taxi up to Doi Suthep, a temple on a mountaintop. Interestingly, there was a sign for all foreign visitors to proceed this way to pay an entry fee, but Thai nationals get in free. Hmm... yeah, I just went in anyway. Granted, it was only like a dollar, but still. Anyway, this is not a Thai concept; in India it's common for Indians to pay one very low price for entry into things while foreigners pay way more. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Anyway, tomorrow is the big day I've been waiting for in some ways. One of the attractions here in Thailand is the elephants, so tomorrow I will spend the day at the Elephant Nature Park, walking with, bathing, and just generally hanging out, up close and personal, with them. I'm so, so, so excited, as elephants are by far my favorite animal. I'm hoping to get some amazing pictures of this experience. Apparently we need to bring a change of clothes as well, since you understandably get pretty wet when bathing an elephant.
There's another attraction up this way that I'm debating doing, and that is the Tiger Kingdom. Here, too, you apparently can get up close and personal with the tigers, except that they are essentially drugged up, to what extent I'm not sure, so that they don't, ya know, eat the tourists. Ha. So therein lies the controversy - sedated tigers. I've heard it's pretty amazing, though, not surprisingly. So we'll see. I expect I'll be heading out of Chiang Mai in the next 2 or 3 days, however, up to Chiang Rai and then crossing the border into Laos as my 30-day visa will expire shortly. From there the trip is up in the air - cross back into Thailand? Head south through Laos into Cambodia? Any thoughts?
I believe these are lotus flowers. They are for sale outside the temple for people to give as offerings.
Why do people do this to their dogs? Paris would never put up with this.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
New feet
I had a lazy start to the day, mostly due to the fact that I now have internet access in my room, so I can check my email, catch up on news, and whatever right from the comfort of my bed. I actually listened to my favorite Portland radio station, WCLZ, as I was getting ready to go out. I finally grabbed breakfast around 11 or so, a yummy banana pancake and the world's strongest-ever ginger tea. Then I grabbed a sorng-taa-ou, which are these red trucks that are shared taxis, to Chiang Mai University. It's got a beautiful campus, which was really quiet because I think they are between semesters right now. But it was nice to walk around the tree-lined streets, get a view of the mountains in the background, and breathe some fresh air on a warm sunny day. Ahhh...
Afterwards I walked back to the center of town, stopping at several trendy (i.e. expensive) boutiques along the way. It was quite a hike, so I grabbed some food at a vegetarian restaurant before I geared up for the Sunday night market, which spans the entire length of one of the main tourist streets here. It was like the Saturday market, but times a hundred. A little too crowded for me at points, actually, but pretty incredible. There were delicious treats to be had about every ten feet and I did my best to keep up. A few stands were selling my beloved mango sticky rice, so of course I had to have some. Unfortunately the mango was a little underripe... so I had another one at another stand down the road. :) I also had some tasty little coconut cookie-type things, a coconut smoothie, taro ice cream and, just so it wasn't ALL sweets, some rice noodle veggie cakes. I may stay through next weekend in Chiang Mai just to hit this market again. As I was making my back to my guesthouse, I walked by chair after chair filled with tourists getting foot massages. Everyone looked so blissed out, and I had walked so much today, that I decided to join them. Good idea. A half hour foot rub for $2, which left me feeling like I had a new pair of feet and asking myself, why am I not doing this every day??
Tomorrow I'm going to get serious about looking into some of the touristy things I want to do here, namely visiting the Elephant Nature Park where you get to interact with the elephants, NOT ride them, which is not really good for them. Also, there seem to be dozens of cooking schools here, so I need to pick one so I can get my fix of these foods anytime I have a craving in the future. I love Thailand.
Bamboo casting shadows.
Check this out. It's called chow-guai. The sign says it's a jelly that comes from a Chinese plant. They serve it with ice and brown sugar. I might get daring enough to try this next week.
Afterwards I walked back to the center of town, stopping at several trendy (i.e. expensive) boutiques along the way. It was quite a hike, so I grabbed some food at a vegetarian restaurant before I geared up for the Sunday night market, which spans the entire length of one of the main tourist streets here. It was like the Saturday market, but times a hundred. A little too crowded for me at points, actually, but pretty incredible. There were delicious treats to be had about every ten feet and I did my best to keep up. A few stands were selling my beloved mango sticky rice, so of course I had to have some. Unfortunately the mango was a little underripe... so I had another one at another stand down the road. :) I also had some tasty little coconut cookie-type things, a coconut smoothie, taro ice cream and, just so it wasn't ALL sweets, some rice noodle veggie cakes. I may stay through next weekend in Chiang Mai just to hit this market again. As I was making my back to my guesthouse, I walked by chair after chair filled with tourists getting foot massages. Everyone looked so blissed out, and I had walked so much today, that I decided to join them. Good idea. A half hour foot rub for $2, which left me feeling like I had a new pair of feet and asking myself, why am I not doing this every day??
Tomorrow I'm going to get serious about looking into some of the touristy things I want to do here, namely visiting the Elephant Nature Park where you get to interact with the elephants, NOT ride them, which is not really good for them. Also, there seem to be dozens of cooking schools here, so I need to pick one so I can get my fix of these foods anytime I have a craving in the future. I love Thailand.
Bamboo casting shadows.
Check this out. It's called chow-guai. The sign says it's a jelly that comes from a Chinese plant. They serve it with ice and brown sugar. I might get daring enough to try this next week.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Wat is that?!
Today was my first full day in Chiang Mai, and it was full indeed. I must have walked a good 10 miles - probably an exaggeration, but it sure felt like a lot. After I realized that my guesthouse was not where I thought it was on the map (I am map-challenged), I actually got to where I was hoping to go, which almost never happens, at least not on my first day in a new place. Along the way, though, I happened upon an enormous market that seemed to go on forever. It was definitely not a tourist market as there were few foreigners in sight. It was pretty amazing, an endless maze of stalls selling everything from clothes to spices to dried fruit to meat and seafood and flowers. Because of my utter lack of Thai I was at a loss for what some of the things were, but it seems like if you can dry or pickle something, the Thais will do it. There were glass jars and plastic bags full of all kinds of exotic looking things. I got as daring as a bag of unknown baked goods, which ended up tasting more or less like angel food cake. Yum.
After getting sidetracked for a while at this market, I ended up on one of the main shopping streets where many of the stores sell hill tribe goods. Interesting, but nothing I would buy, and certainly nothing I could see selling in the U.S. Toward the end of the day, I made my way to the Saturday night street market, which was huge. There's another similar market on a different street tomorrow, which I think is basically the same vendors.
In between all of this shopping and walking, I managed to squeeze in a banana lassi, a cornflake cookie, two curry soups, and a Thai iced tea. I'm surprised at how hard it is to find this drink, actually. It's so highly addicting, at least for me and I would suspect other tourists, that I really think the Thais should be capitalizing on this and have a tea stand at least every couple blocks. But as I've mentioned before, they seem to be rather lackadaisical here about selling. Today I actually saw three vendors asleep on the job, literally - pillow under the head, newspaper over the head, you name it. The Thais are really chill, apparently.
So Chiang Mai is a good-sized city, but still small enough and the tourist areas concentrated enough that I've run into some of the folks on my plane a few times. And at the end of the day today as I was making my way back to my guesthouse, I noticed a tourist taking a picture of a wat (temple). As I think I've mentioned, after India and now Thailand I'm kind of over temples. You can't spit a watermelon seed here without hitting one, kind of like churches in my hometown. In any case, I glanced over and decided, grudgingly, that I should get my camera out and take some pictures because this one was actually kind of unique and beautiful. So I crossed the street to get a closer view and as I was snapping away I heard, "Melanie Hansen!" Turns out my friends from Delhi were at this very same temple with their family, including a former French student of mine. Wild. I knew they were here, and we were probably going to get together at some point, but what are the chances of running into each other like that? Pretty funny. It's a small world indeed.
Roses still packed tight from shipping.
Here fishy, fishy... oh wait, you're dried and cured to a crisp and on a stick. There seems to be a lot of that here, fish on a stick, either in full form or compressed into a ball. Interesting.
One vendor's colorful display.
After getting sidetracked for a while at this market, I ended up on one of the main shopping streets where many of the stores sell hill tribe goods. Interesting, but nothing I would buy, and certainly nothing I could see selling in the U.S. Toward the end of the day, I made my way to the Saturday night street market, which was huge. There's another similar market on a different street tomorrow, which I think is basically the same vendors.
In between all of this shopping and walking, I managed to squeeze in a banana lassi, a cornflake cookie, two curry soups, and a Thai iced tea. I'm surprised at how hard it is to find this drink, actually. It's so highly addicting, at least for me and I would suspect other tourists, that I really think the Thais should be capitalizing on this and have a tea stand at least every couple blocks. But as I've mentioned before, they seem to be rather lackadaisical here about selling. Today I actually saw three vendors asleep on the job, literally - pillow under the head, newspaper over the head, you name it. The Thais are really chill, apparently.
So Chiang Mai is a good-sized city, but still small enough and the tourist areas concentrated enough that I've run into some of the folks on my plane a few times. And at the end of the day today as I was making my way back to my guesthouse, I noticed a tourist taking a picture of a wat (temple). As I think I've mentioned, after India and now Thailand I'm kind of over temples. You can't spit a watermelon seed here without hitting one, kind of like churches in my hometown. In any case, I glanced over and decided, grudgingly, that I should get my camera out and take some pictures because this one was actually kind of unique and beautiful. So I crossed the street to get a closer view and as I was snapping away I heard, "Melanie Hansen!" Turns out my friends from Delhi were at this very same temple with their family, including a former French student of mine. Wild. I knew they were here, and we were probably going to get together at some point, but what are the chances of running into each other like that? Pretty funny. It's a small world indeed.
Roses still packed tight from shipping.
Here fishy, fishy... oh wait, you're dried and cured to a crisp and on a stick. There seems to be a lot of that here, fish on a stick, either in full form or compressed into a ball. Interesting.
One vendor's colorful display.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas from Chiang Mai!
I spent Christmas Eve in Phuket Town on the super touristed island of Phuket. It was nothing to write home about, and this morning I caught a cab to the airport for my two-hour flight north to Chiang Mai. Ever since I arrived in Thailand I've been wondering, where are all the American tourists? Well, it turns out they are here, for better or for worse. I wasn't quite sure what to expect here, but it's a little more like Bangkok than I imagined. There's quite a lot of traffic, but it also seems like there are ways to escape it to some quieter streets.
I'm super stoked to report that the prices, for some things at least, have plummeted. I found a room for 150 baht, about $5, and this includes free wifi. Sweet. Of course, it also includes an Asian-style toilet and a cold water shower, but frankly I'm quite used to both of these things. Besides, once you've traveled enough on buses and trains in Asia, you can pretty much handle any bathroom set-up.
I spent a few hours wandering around this afternoon, trying to get my bearings and figure out where the best places to shop might be. This will likely take some time. There seem to be some cool clothing styles here (both for me and my pipedream of an import business), but I will have to hunt for quality and price. As I write this I'm sitting in a generic coffee shop as I was craving something sweet. It's Christmas, after all, so I might as well indulge in something. I settled on some mocha chip ice cream. They're playing the Carpenters, which is pretty amusing, but it's better than some other places which are playing Christmas music, which when I hear it just makes me wish I were with my family celebrating the holiday. It's about 7:30 a.m. in the U.S. and I can picture my little nephews waking up to see what Santa brought them. Awww...
So no traditional Christmas for me this year, but that's OK. It was my choice to travel at this time of the year and although I am missing my favorite holiday with family, I am not missing the cold weather.
Update: In the middle of typing this, my sister chimed in with my brother-in-law and the boys on Skype, so it was almost like being there. Technology = amazing.
I made a friend on the streets of Chiang Mai today, a newborn kitty. :)
I'm super stoked to report that the prices, for some things at least, have plummeted. I found a room for 150 baht, about $5, and this includes free wifi. Sweet. Of course, it also includes an Asian-style toilet and a cold water shower, but frankly I'm quite used to both of these things. Besides, once you've traveled enough on buses and trains in Asia, you can pretty much handle any bathroom set-up.
I spent a few hours wandering around this afternoon, trying to get my bearings and figure out where the best places to shop might be. This will likely take some time. There seem to be some cool clothing styles here (both for me and my pipedream of an import business), but I will have to hunt for quality and price. As I write this I'm sitting in a generic coffee shop as I was craving something sweet. It's Christmas, after all, so I might as well indulge in something. I settled on some mocha chip ice cream. They're playing the Carpenters, which is pretty amusing, but it's better than some other places which are playing Christmas music, which when I hear it just makes me wish I were with my family celebrating the holiday. It's about 7:30 a.m. in the U.S. and I can picture my little nephews waking up to see what Santa brought them. Awww...
So no traditional Christmas for me this year, but that's OK. It was my choice to travel at this time of the year and although I am missing my favorite holiday with family, I am not missing the cold weather.
Update: In the middle of typing this, my sister chimed in with my brother-in-law and the boys on Skype, so it was almost like being there. Technology = amazing.
I made a friend on the streets of Chiang Mai today, a newborn kitty. :)
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Better than perfect
Last night as I lay on the wooden platform overlooking the sunset, getting a 1 1/2 hour Thai massage and listening to the sound of the waves I thought, "Is there such a thing as better than perfect? Because if so, this is it." I am in love with this place, and I definitely want to return, preferably with that "man of my dreams". For now, I will enjoy one more day in the sun and surf. I just booked a ticket to Chiang Mai, in the north, leaving on Christmas day. After all, how much time can one spend in the sun? Especially one as fair-skinned as I?
I'm not sure if I'll be online between now and Christmas day, so if not, Merry Christmas! Enjoy the holiday and the time together. I'll be with you in spirit!!
I'm not sure if I'll be online between now and Christmas day, so if not, Merry Christmas! Enjoy the holiday and the time together. I'll be with you in spirit!!
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