Oh, Chiang Mai!

One particular stop in Thailand was sure to be a hit – Chiang Mai.  I knew I was going to like this Northern town because all of the specs were similar to my former home in Vietnam, DaNang.  Medium sized, cooler and less traffic-jammed than the big urban cities, and great eco-tourism to get you out and about.  The only major difference is that Chiang Mai is a well-known city in the backpacking circuit, and for good reason.  A friend of mine who I met on the bus ride over from Cambodia flew into Chiang Mai on the same day as me, so we decided to do a day of awesome together, and awesome it was.  We booked a tour with Untouched Thailand and two very fluent English speaking guides picked us up at 6:30am to head north.  These guys (named Pon and Tom) were great conversationalists, and had a unique back story – they grew up together and spent 18 years as monks!  This came in handy while we were visiting temples, as they knew so much about monastery life. 

Our first stop was at the Elephant Training Center.  There were many options for elephant interaction in Chiang Mai, some charging 58000 Baht ($187) for one day.  We didn’t know much about this place as we booked a tour and everything was prearranged, but we might have done this portion differently in hindsight.  Riding an elephant through the forest is an amazing experience, but something about it just didn’t feel right.  Riding a horse seems fine, but riding an elephant - an animal three or four times the size of a horse – brought on some guilt.  Afterward, it was very cool to feel the elephant’s skin (so rough!) and feed him a whole bunch of bananas.  It was warming to hear about the relationship the elephants have with the mahouts.  Our guide told us the mahouts rarely take any holidays, because having an elephant is a full-life job.  One mahout and one elephant are together until one of them dies.  After speaking with my host about our unease in the situation, he explained that they could be logging, which isn’t allowed anymore, so this life is much better and easier than the abuse loggers once put them through.  After we saw the mahouts give the elephants a bath, we jumped onto a bamboo raft and floated down the river.  It was a wonderful and peaceful ride. 

After leaving the elephant camp, we headed over to a cave, which was nice, but nothing compared to what I’ve seen in the last year.  I’m pretty sure Vietnam takes the cake for caves.  Sorry, Thailand.  Can't win 'em all.

After that, our guides told us about a hill tribe that is about an hour outside of Chiang Mai.  The Long neck Karen tribe is a group of people I have only ever seen on National Geographic.  The tribe is most likely from Myanmar and living as refugees within the village – they aren’t allowed to go far outside for very long.  From the age of four or five, the girls don heavy brass neck pieces, which are never taken off.  With the neck, arm and leg rings, some women carry an additional 30lbs of weight in brass.  The original intention was to protect the women from tiger bites.  Now, they symbolize beauty and tribal identity.  They sleep and bath in them and they’re lengthened about every seven years.  By the time the girls are adults, their necks are abnormally long, and taking off the collar would be life-threatening.  

Our guide explained that one punishment for adultery or other crimes is taking off the collar.  Eventually the woman would die from a broken neck or other complications.
Walking into the village, it seemed like the biggest tourist trap I’d ever seen, but our guide explained that the only way they can make money in this part of town is to sell the scarves and trinkets that they make.  The entire village was one booth after another with girls and women hanging out and selling their goods.  Some were gossiping, some weaving, and others were sitting like dolls (they wear lots of makeup and tie their hair in buns).  Our guide spoke this particular tribe language, which was different than thai, and I was able to ask some teenagers what they do for fun in the village.  They basically said “you’re looking at it.”  I wonder, if given the right listener, they might reveal feelings of pride and happiness for their heritage, or if they dream of more. 

Since we started our tour two hours earlier than expected, our guides asked us if we wanted to sneak in one extra stop at the Tiger Kingdom.  I had planned on going there sometime during the week anyway, but my friend was leaving the following day, so we agreed and started getting pumped to actually pet a real adult tiger. 

I had read up about these tiger places in Thailand.  There are two well-known ones, one in the south and this one in the north.  There has been some controversy over whether the tigers are drugged or not.  Both tiger places swear profusely that they do not condone this practice, and I read that the one in the south chains them up when they’re not being visited, so I was happy to see that none of the ones at this tiger joint were chained.  In fact, I was pleasantly surprised how humane and spacious the park was.  In some enclosures, the tigers were playfully wrestling, sometimes on their hind legs which made them look massive.  In others, they were tame, either pacing back and forth or lounging in pools or in the shade.  Tigers hunt and eat at night, and are sleepy during the day.  We had a funny staff member beckon us into the cage through a small fenced door.  We were told to stay away from the heads of the tiger, not to step on their tales, to pet only on the back and the stomach, and to stay far away from the sides of the enclosure, as they were rimmed with electric shock wires.  Trying to remember all of these guidelines and keep my composure as I stepped into the tiger den, my heart rate increased a few clicks in excitement. 

The first one we visited was a medium sized adult.  He groaned a little from our intrusion of his nap, but was otherwise gentle.  The tiger guy instructed me to put my head on his belly.  After calling him insane, I tried it for a few seconds.  That was a lot of trust right there.  We visited two others, a huge one, inviting belly rubs as he laid on his back and another large male that was laying in the water.  I can’t say I’ll ever get this close to a big cat again.  Wow, I couldn’t believe that was even possible.  The aprox. 20 min visit with multiple tigers cost about $15.  We could have paid a lot more and played with cubs, but the big guys are what I was interested in. 

When we got back to my friend’s hotel, we waded into the pool and recounted how amazingly packed and fun the day was.  The rest of the week was spent in the ceramic village and resting, having accomplished all the tourism I desired and enjoying life in Chiang Mai.  I could see myself living in that city, easily.