Chiang Mai Wats

From our window on the fourth floor of the Na Inn, a large, old, crumbled brick Chedi (bell-shaped temple), with its mountain backdrop, dominates the view from our hotel balcony. It turns out this (Wat Chedi Luong) is the tallest Chedi in Thailand and is intentionally situated directly in the middle or the “navel” of Chiang Mai. Apparently, cities in Thailand were once considered to be like a body and were designed as such. Chiang Mai was created with a gate to the North flanked by elephants. This elephant gate was to the “head” of the city through which important elements would flow directly to the administrative and spiritual center of the Wat Chedi Luang we visited. Negative aspects of city life were prohibited in this Northern part of the city. Rather, things like the removal of the dead, were relegated to the Southwest corner of the city. The Eastern and Southeastern part of the city is flanked by the Mae Ping River and this was to be, and remains, the center for commerce and industry. The Western part of the city was relatively forested. This was to be the place for monks and meditation and to be the educational section of the city. It is in this direction that the large Chiang Mai University and other Universities lie today. In addition, Wats were established at the edge of the old city at each of the eight cardinal points from Chedi Luang in a system known as “thaksamuang.” The combined nine wats are important because, as you probably know, nine is an auspicious number.

There are, however, many more wats than nine in Chiang Mai. There are apparently as many wats in Chiang Mai as there are in all of Bangkok. Indeed, it is very hard to walk in any direction for long without passing a wat or a group of saffron-robed monks. I see many monks in the morning when I head out for my run as this is the time of day they circulate with their silver offering bowls. Thais offer food to the monks in order to gain “merit” in their reincarnation-path toward enlightenment. It is apparently important that the emphasis is on the donation of the food rather than its receipt by the particular monk. For instance, a monk may give a blessing to the donor, but would never give a personal “thank you.” Anyway, the abundance of Wats certainly adds to the color and vibrancy of the city. Wats are typically ornately decorated with gold and mirrored mosaics which makes for a dazzling site as lights pass over them at night.
One thing we’ve enjoyed in Chiang Mai is visiting the Wat’s for the English language lectures and the “monk chat” times when we can ask questions of the monks and the monks can practice their English.

The most important Wat in Chiang Mai is Wat Doi Suthep, on the mountain overlooking the city. We can see the lights of the Wat from our hotel and have driven up the mountain to the Wat on our scooter. This is apparently the second most holy site in Thailand and the temple is quite opulent. On our first visit, we entered the main temple and kneeled down, admiring the detailed paintings on the wall, noting the large number of clocks, counting the many Buddha statues in the hall (35+?) when a wizened old monk who had been sitting on the side of the temple began chanting and then dipped a split bamboo stick into some water and splashed it on the group of us clustered in front of the main altar. He then began tying small lengths of white string onto the wrists of the supplicants. An assistant tied string to the wrists of the women present as monks are not allowed to touch women directly. As the string was tied, a little prayer or comment was offered from the monk. However, when I reached the monk, he took one look at me and set to work with renewed vigor. He began chanting loudly and repeatedly splashed the holy water onto my back with the branch as I bowed before him. At some point he seemed satisfied, or at least resigned to the limitations of what he had to work with, and tied a piece of white string on my right wrist before sending me on my way.

Chinese New Year

It’s the first day of the three-day Chinese New Year celebrations so, once we got going, we headed over to Chinatown for the festivities. There were a number of children’s groups performing dances and playing music on two stages set up a block apart on Soi Chang Moi (the main drag through Chinatown). Other streets were lined with food vendors and we enjoyed a variety of delicious delicacies and visited a crowded Chinese temple. We returned in the evening to find the place packed with people there for the big celebration. The climax of the night was when a very long Chinese dragon - consisting of one person at the head and many more supporting the body - “climbed,” corkscrew-like, up a large 30 foot metal pole with the aid of a number of daring young men who were suspended up and down the sides of the pole; very impressive. Maya loved watching the Chinese girls perform and stage but given the crowd and her diminutive stature, she was unable to see without moving up to the front of the crowd. A row of large padded shares was directly in front of the stage. These were unoccupied and presumably reserved for festival VIPs but that didn’t stop Maya from plopping down and watching the show. No one seemed to mind until I could see an official go to speak to Maya, presumably asking her to move as the VIPs were en route. Maya just smiled up at him, clearly not understanding his Thai, and returned her attention to the performance, leaving the official flummoxed. I could see what was going on but I was thoroughly hemmed in by the crowd so I sent Zak up and we retrieved Maya just as the VIPs were entering.

The next morning we three all had varying degrees of upset tummies, probably from eating the food stall food that had been sitting out in the hot sun all day. We decided to get out of town for some fresh air so we hopped on our rented scooter and drove up to the Mae Sa Valley North of town and visited, first an insect zoo (the butterfly aviary (would that be a butterflaviary?) was pretty cool), and then the Maesa elephant camp show. The elephant show was of course touristy but not bad. We first got to see them bathing in the river which they really seemed to enjoy and spent a lot of time dunking their heads and spraying themselves (and the crowd) down. Downstream, three women stood with plastic baskets catching any elephant dung that floated their way (what’s brown and sounds like a bell?). The elephants then played soccer, kicking a big soccer ball into a net (with and without an elephant goalie), played harmonicas and other musical instruments, gave one of the trainers a massage (did you know the sex organs of an elephant are on the bottom of their feet?.....if they step on you, you're f*cked), threw darts, stacked logs, and painted surprisingly good pictures (most were of flowers).

Umbrella Festival

Our stay in Chiang Mai overlapped with the annual Umbrella Festival in nearby BoSang. We passed an enjoyable day first learning how the umbrellas were made and then enjoying the festivities and food. Maya purchased, and then released, a pair of sparrows that were caged in a small bamboo wicker enclosure. The birds aren't sold to be pets, the idea is to release them to begin with. Releasing caged birds brings merit and good luck. Obviously. However, there is something a little perverse about a cottage industry that captures birds so that others can earn merit by releasing the birds. If you lose merit by catching the birds, this would be essentially a zero-sum game; there would be no net gain in the end. However, upon reflection, this seems like a particularly rational/Western assessment. I suspect the Thais feel that capturing birds to bring others' good luck provides a valuable benefit to society... everyone wins! Except possibly the birds. But for all I know, they get a little food and perhaps they enjoy a brief respite from having to be constantly on guard against the hawks. Heck, for all I know the same birds keep getting captured over and over again. It is pretty cool to release the birds.

Tiger Kingdom

While Mom and Dad were off on a tour of the Golden Triangle, we hired a van from Grace’s to take us to Tiger Kingdom. I was initially a bit reluctant to visit an establishment whose name all but said “tourist trap” but it’s not all about me and one must do things to keep the kids amused so off we went. As you can guess, I was pleasantly surprised. They actually let you in the cages with the tigers. Maya got to go in with the baby tigers and Zak and I got to go in with the 5 month adolescents and then also the young adults. There are keepers there to direct you and, assumedly, keep you safe but they were only armed with little thumb-thick dowels about one foot long that didn’t look like they would do much against a full-grown tiger. However, we just figured, “it’s Thailand, so it’s got to be safe.” Besides the tigers looked pretty complacent and I assume they were well fed. Actually, when I would lay my head on the stomach of one of the big cats, I could hear the food being digested. One thing I thought was fascinating was that tigers basically behaved the same as a house cat. We would pet them the same way we stroked our house cats back home. For example, when Zak would rub the belly of “New,” a big male, he rolled on his back and spread his legs to the sun for better access. Pretty cool. When we were at the Chiang Mai Zoo, Zak and Maya each got to feed raw meat to the jaguars off the end of a metal pole and I thought that was pretty cool but this was pretty out of hand. I’ve never been in a cage with a tiger like that and I presumably never will again, especially since, I heard recently, a tourist was mauled there sometime after our visit. Oh well, it was probably just a rumor.

Elephants

Well, what do you do when you visit Thailand? Ride an elephant of course! In general, I’m kind of big on organizing my own trips, finding my own transportation, etc. but when the folks were here we chartered a day trip through Grace’s Boutique House and they took care of everything. The first stop was an elephant camp. The elephants were fitted with seats across their backs onto which we clambered via a raised platform. I realize this is going to sound profound but riding an elephant is very cool! It’s kind of like riding a horse but they are just so massive and oddly graceful. You’re so high off the ground and just sway back and forth as the beast lumbers along. At the elephant camp we saw a two-day old elephant that was still a bit unsteady on his feet. Even on animals this size, babies are just sooo cute!

After the elephants we visited a Karen “Hill Tribe” Village and saw some beautiful weaving on small looms before trekking down through jungles and rice fields to a nearby waterfall. On the way out, we hiked through a Hmong Village where the three generations of Braunwarth males took turns shooting a wooden crossbow used by the Hmong for hunting, while Grandma and Maya bought handicrafts. The Hmong houses and the Karen houses were interesting but different. The former are on the ground while the latter are on stilts. Both are extremely primitive compared to anything we have in the states. Such poverty must take a toll, particularly in the form of decreased options for future generations but there was something appealing about the simple life lived by the villagers. They seemed somehow better off than those living in squalor in the cities. Interesting if slightly posed-for-tourism time over, we drove a short ways to a small nearby river where we boarded bamboo rafts. The rafts consisted of a dozen or so 20 foot large bamboo pieces lashed to smaller bamboo crosspieces at each end and at the middle. Maya sat on the cross piece in the middle while Zak and I took turns guiding the raft from the back with a bamboo pole while a guide in the front did the same. George shared a raft with an Argentinian girl named Claudia Marina Campos who had joined us for the day. Good times were had by all.

Pai Shop

We also visited some small communities surrounding Pai. One community, Baan Din Doi, was populated by the Lisu people, one of a few ethnically distinct “hill tribe” people who live in Northern Thailand. The women wore very colorful tops wrapped diagonally across their chests and long black skirts adorned with silver, very striking. Nearby was a community of ethnic Chinese who had initially fled China during the Communist takeover. The buildings were constructed of an adobe or earthen type of material and were situated around a central plaza. The food and faces were, of course, Chinese. We watched the men play a game where one would spin a large top by pulling quickly on a stick tied to the string that was wrapped around the top. Another would try to spin his top into the first. Once the tops collided, much running and shouting ensued although we couldn’t really figure out the point of it all. There was also a large wooden 4-seater human-powered Ferris wheel in the main square. I, of course, suggested a ride. Maya was game but Zak wouldn’t go near it. However, as it was the eve of Chinese New Year, Zak did purchase a string of 500 firecrackers (the 250 string just didn’t seem big enough).

Maya is a big hit with the locals who all assume she is Thai (she does look like she could be). This creates quite a few opportunities to talk to the locals, which is nice. I've picked up the basic "hello" "goodbye" "how are you" "see you later" "excuse me" “how much is that” "please" "thank you" and some basic numbers all of which also goes a long way to endearing ourselves to the natives. Zak’s been trying to blend in with native dress. His latest acquisition was a very stylish hand-knit stocking cap (brown with silver stripes) with ear flaps, chin ties, and a tassle on top. He bought it outside of a Wat in Pai that inside featured a depiction of a hell other than travelling without our spouse and mother.

More Pai Please

One morning in Pai we stopped at an elephant camp and were invited to feed the elephants. However the elephants were a bit more affectionate than we bargained for and they quickly wrapped Zak and I up in their trunks. Luckily, our feet remained on the ground but the quiet strength of these animals was truly awe inspiring. After carefully extricating ourselves - we had to explain that we weren’t those kind of guys - we headed down the road for a relaxing soak in the Thai Pai Hot Springs. We were there fairly early in the morning so we could get a good soak in before the heat of the day and we had the pools to ourselves. From a distance, we could see the steam rising off the pools through the shafts of sunlight filtering through the overhanging trees. Idyllic. You could select your soaking temperature depending on which pool you chose, the cooler pools being further from the source of the spring. The source pools were awesomely hot, bubbling and boiling like a group of nature’s cauldrons. Zak bought a bag of raw eggs and carefully cooked them by dangling the bag in the water from a hooked bamboo pole.

Later that day, we cooled off with a swim at the base of the local Mo Paeng waterfall. Zak and I were two of only four souls brave enough to get into the chilly water. The other two were semi-intoxicated Aussies who were trying to impress two bikini-clad Montreal girls by climbing up alongside the waterfall then sliding down the falls over 25 feet of only moderately smooth rock into the pool at the bottom. At the same time, but between splashes, a young Thai bride and groom, in full formal attire, were having their wedding pictures taken at the base of the falls; we tried to blend in with the locals but only Maya was able to pull it off. It turns out that a lot of European youth have jumped on the tattooed/pierced white trash bandwagon and, presumably because they are unable as a consequence to find gainful employment in their home countries, many seem to traveling here in Pai. It's the kind of place with a lot of fliers advertising live music jams at various "bars" by the river until the wee hours. We stayed an extra day in part to attend a large reggae fest on Saturday night; it was kind of fun. Definitely a big production. I was about to say the bands could have been better but we were in a small town in Northern Thailand so what can you say; It is what it is.

Pai

We just got back from a brief sojourn to Pai, a beautiful little town only a 4 hour twisty ride from our home base in Chiang Mai. Pai sits in a valley surrounded by green mountains. We visited waterfalls, hot springs, went fishing, I even found an old inner tube on the banks of the Pai river that Maya and I used to float through town. We had so much fun our theme for the visit was, "whoopity, whoopity" from a an old Simpson's episode. Pai is pretty and peaceful and popular with tourists, most of them Thais in for the weekend. Every evening the main street is transformed into a walking market, complete with drink carts and live music.

Every night we dined on street food whose common element was that it was either served on a sharp stick or was intended to be eaten with a sharp stick. This created some element of danger for Maya who came close to impaling her soft palate on more than one occasion but disaster was averted in part because she gravitated toward safer food such as corn on a cob (which was also served on a sharp stick). We also enjoyed cuttlefish and corn roasted over coals, dumplings, and rotis (banana and/or egg fried in a thin dough wrapper served with sweetened-condensed milk and sugar). For drinks we continue to enjoy, whenever possible, the wonderful fresh-fruit juice shakes (no sticks there). One of my favorite foods was a kind of salad crepe that was prepared on what I can best describe as a steaming drum head. There are also, of course, pad thais, noodle soups, chicken and pork sates, hot teas and, interestingly, waffles. Zak’s favorite are small doughy-custard things cooked in little cups set into a huge cast-iron skillet.

At night we would float Kum Loi, large paper lanterns that would rise into the heavens when the torch at the bottom filled the lantern with hot air. We stayed on the Pai River that runs along town and the yellow flames of the burning lanterns drifting in front of the brilliant white stars was quite spectacular.

Our lodging in Pai cost 350 baht (about $10) for a raised bamboo hut facing the river. There were no screens so we slept under a mosquito net. You get to our place by crossing a rickety bamboo foot bridge from town to our side of the river and then a smaller foot bridge from the main group of Baan Pai Riverside "cabanas" to our place. We paid an extra 100 bhat for the river view, which was well worth it. An added feature was an attached bathroom. Any concern about men peeing on the seat was mitigated by the fact that on must conveniently lean the toilet seat against the bamboo wall when not in use. Like most toilets in Thailand outside of the large hotels, flushing was accomplished by a pouring a bucket of water down the toilet. At least the toilet had a drain (that went who knows where), the shower and sink simply drained to the corner of the bathroom floor and under the bamboo wall. We quickly learned to step back when rinsing our toothbrushes so that the drain water didn't splash on our legs. We loved it and we loved Pai. We also had some great neighbors. One one side was Jesse and Michelle from Vancouver. Michelle would play guitar while we sat around the campfire. On the other side of them were a couple of dreadlocked French guys, Stefan and Toni. Stefan had actually been backpacking for over two weeks with an excellent bottle of French wine in his pack and we were all kind enough to help lighten his load. God love the French. Americans are too concerned about carrying pepto-bismol and hand sanitizer to have room for wine. We were also joined by Troy and Chung, another couple of Australian hammerheads. Zak bought a 500 pack of firecrackers at the Chinese village and Troy, of course, had his own; I’m not sure which of two more enjoyed setting them off.