Holiday in Thailand

Carrie: Chiang Mai (English: New Walled City) is a can't-miss on any Thailand tour. The central old town is a perfect square surrounded by a moat and parts of the old walls and gates. It has the atmosphere of a beach town with no beach. It's relaxed but never boring, modern but with old charm. We felt much less crowded and hassled than in Bangkok.

We got to meet up with many different friends in Chiang Mai. Our fellow teachers from the Yongzhou area, Jen and Gabby, had arrived in Thailand a few days before us. I loved getting time with my girls and having friends to get massages and shop with. We marveled at how living and teaching in small Chinese cities is an experience that makes fast and meaningful friendships between very different people. Even when Jen is back in Canada and Gabby is in Australia I know we'll keep in touch. :-) Two of Jesse's long time family friends showed us the best local restaurants and bars. Patrick Pierce has been living in Chiang Mai for about 8 years and his niece Lindsey was visiting while taking a month long Thai massage class. We all had a fantastic time together and I ate more than I thought possible.

We were lucky to arrive on the last day of the annual Chiang Mai Flower Festival. We had missed the parade but all the flower-covered floats and prize-winning orchids were on display. They were more beautiful than any camera could capture.

On Tuesday the 5th, Jesse, Aaron, Gabby, Jen, and I took a day long cooking course for 800 baht, about $25. You can book courses at many different schools through your guesthouse but I would strongly recommend "The Best Thai Cookery School." The owner/teacher, Perm, was friendly, funny, and knowledgeable. He gave us tons of tips as we went to the local market and then headed to his school outside town for our class. We were given a menu of choices for what we wanted to cook, so we all chose different dishes and gave each other tastes. Unfortunately for me though, Jesse and Aaron insisted on making theirs with tons of chili peppers (that we picked ourselves!) so a small taste was all I could manage. The food was delicious, and we got free cookbooks with color photos so we can make them again at home. We would have no problem finding the ingredients at our local Thai grocery store in Chicago but I think in Yongzhou it might be tricky.

On Wednesday, we changed hotels from the more expensive MD House (1000 baht for a 3 person room) to the simpler but much cheaper Nice Place Guesthouse (200 baht for a two person room, but no pool or AC). You may not think there’s a big difference between $31.75 and $6.35, but you aren’t earning Chinese RMB! Jen and Gabby had been staying there all week and had booked tours and tickets through them, so they were very friendly with the staff by that point. We arrived to find a spread of food and incense on the floor, and a fire raging in a big bucket in the alley street. It was a celebration for the Chinese Lunar New Year! We had planned to be in Chiang Mai for the festival knowing that there are a number of people of Chinese decent there and hoping to see some fireworks and fun. The staff kindly invited us to join them in throwing cash, gold bars, coins, clothing, cars, and luxury goods (all made of paper, of course) into the fire for our ancestors. They offered us the food, but unfortunately we were too full from our lunch at the restaurant at Daret's House (cheapest beer and fruit shakes in Chiang Mai- we ate here a LOT) to eat much.

Jesse and Aaron spent a lot of our vacation playing DoTA which, although they talked about quite a bit in my presence, all I really know about is that it is a version of Warcraft III and is very popular with young Thai boys. I remain of the opinion that is a waste of a Thai vacation but men don’t listen much to women’s opinions, do they? One night while they were off at the net bar I went to see a movie with Lindsey and Patrick. I love Johnny Depp and Tim Burton so I was excited to see Sweeney Todd. I had read in my trusty guide book that movies in Thailand are often censored and Sweeney Todd’s graphic throat-slitting certainly proved that! I was actually relieved that the particularly macabre scenes were blurred as we squealed at murder after murder. Even with the fuzzy razor blades it was still frightening, in a funny sort of way.

Chiang Mai has over 300 temples, almost as many as Bangkok in a MUCH smaller area. I loved turning an alley corner to see, rising above a whitewashed wall covered with ads for Thai boxing shows, ornate tile roofs designed to evoke images of naga, the mythical serpent who guarded Buddha from rain and distraction during mediation. The most important temple in the area is Doi Suthep, "a peak named after the hermit Sudeva, who lived on the mountain's slopes for many years" (our trusty Lonely Planet travel guide). We visited it on Thursday the 7th, one of the most jam packed days of our vacation. Jesse and Aaron had rented two motorbikes the day before while I was having fun with Gabby and Jen. We had some tasty breakfast at Nice Place then headed out to find Chiang Mai University's Art Museum. We got pretty lost in the huge campus, but it didn't really matter because we were having a good time. When we finally found it, the main exhibit was a winding display of photographs by an artist who retraced the journey of her mother, a Holocaust survivor. Between each photograph were quotes and descriptions of her mother's experiences in English and Thai. It was such a strange feeling, sensing how huge and yet how small our world is, and our connections to each other, what we can learn from each other.

Next we rode to the Chiang Mai Zoo, where we met up with Lindsey. Jesse and I are big zoo fanatics, but this one was a little different. I guess it used to be a foreign resident’s private collection that was later taken over by the government. Being at the foot of a mountain, exploration meant a lot of walking uphill between spread out exhibits. We weren't allowed to bring in our motorbikes and the buses around the park cost more money that we cheapskates didn't want to pay, so we got tired before seeing even most of the zoo. It was still a good time. We got to see a male peacock showing off for the ladies in the walk through Aviary and Jesse fed a jaguar raw meat with a metal pole! Click below to see the videos, please ignore our incorrect id of the jaguar as a leopard. :-) ~~Oops, no video now, we maxed out our uploading for this month~~

From the zoo we took a wild ride up the mountain to see Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, "first established in 1383 under King Keu Naone, it is one of the north's most sacred temples." Aaron and Lindsey were nearly killed by a bus when without warning we lost a lane of the winding road and they tried to go around a stopped van in front of them. Jesse and I had no idea until we saw their freaked out faces when we reached the top. Tired and shaken, we took our time going up the 306 steps to see the beautiful temple and view the city from above. My souvenir ticket explains (I have typed it exactly): “According to legend, holy relics discovered during the reign of King Kuena (13551385) were placed in a howdah on the back of a white elephant, which carried them to Wat Phrathat, then if dropped dead due to fatigue from long journey. The present complex dates form the 16 century and was expanded or restore several times later.” It was pretty impressive, especially the tiled Naga serpents that climbed up both sides of the stairs. We ended our day at our new favorite restaurant ever (name withheld on Patrick’s behalf, because he doesn’t want it full of faràng, haha) with cold drinks and very tasty Thai food.

Jesse: On Friday night Aaron and I left Carrie on her own to go see a Thai boxing match for 400 baht each. I must confess, it was not really my thing, but Aaron seemed keen, and after his general good-naturedness in putting up with me and Carrie (mostly Carrie with her infinite bathroom breaks), I wasn’t about to make him go alone. So a little after sunset we crowded into the back of a pickup and headed across the river to the Thai boxing stadium. Once we arrived we scoped out the food. In front of the stadium there were little stands selling ridiculously cheap food. For 30 baht (ONE dollar) we got two servings of Pad Thai, some meatballs on a stick, and these little cocktail weenies wrapped in a deep fried broad rice noodle. We posted up and ate our stick meats before heading in.

Inside the stadium there were rows of white plastic lawn chairs for the faràng (foreigners) right next to the arena. However on the outer edges, separated from the floor by a chain link fence, were tiered stadium style benches for the locals. Aaron and I sat in the floor seats and let the show begin. There is a ritual before every fight where each fighter bows to the posts of the rings and does this bizarre arm twirling half kneeling stretch in time to “traditional” music. The music is this incredible shrill reed whistle and pounding drums and musicians play it all through the fight. The traditional Thai boxing match is five rounds, with each round being three minutes long. While I knew it was called kickboxing, watching the Thais fight did not give me the impression of too many kicks. I mean they were there, periodically one of the fighters would lash out with a slapping kick to his opponent’s ribs or knee, and the slap of the hit was really easy to hear. But mostly my impression of the Thai style of kickboxing is that it involves lots of grapples that are either broken up by the ref, or result in a solid minute of lightening fast knees to the ribs. In between each match the fighters get their legs rubbed down with ice. I guess this is to deaden the pain of the kicks.

Overall I didn’t find the Thai style to be very satisfying, I mean they are incredibly talented athletes, and there is no way I could endure what they do, but I want a little blood in my blood sports. The exhibition matches did satisfy that.
There were two exhibition fights that night. The first was a Frenchman versus a Scott. It ended as you might guess it would, in the second round the Scott launched an explosive kick to the temple of the Frenchman and he went down like 50 kilos of fois-grois. The second exhibition was between a Thai fighter and a different Frenchman. It was the most spectacularly brutal thing I have ever seen. Early in the first round the Thai fighter (pun for my nerd friends) screamed and launched his elbow across the Frenchman’s brow, which politely opened up like an over-ripe fruit and started gushing blood as only scalp wounds can. This made it interesting for the French guy as he was blind for the next three rounds from the copious amount of blood spilling down his face. It ended much as the first exhibition had. But this time it was a good fight for France. In the fourth round the Frenchman launched a series of rapid jabs into the Thai guys face, cause him to reel back and drop his guard. That’s all it took, the Frenchman’s leg snapped up well above his shoulder and cracked into the side of the Thai guys head, dropping him to the floor. By this point, I was on my feet with a beer clenched in one hand and a cigarette in the other, practically screaming for blood. It turned out to be an exciting evening.