MORE CHIANG MAI

8th - 11th Jan 2018

Thai kick-boxing

I met up with friends who live in Chiang Mai. Their whole extended family (19 of) were visiting for Christmas and New Year. Interesting bunch; one of the wives runs a successful jam and chutney enterprise based in Chiang Mai ( I plug; littlespoonthailand.com), and her husband runs a series of fitness centres (gyms to you and me). Another wife is a professional singer/pianist and her husband is an artist (see okdavid.com). There are a lot of ex-pats, mostly British or American, who have emigrated to this part of the world which I hadn't realised beforehand. I was told it is cheaper and there are more opportunities to set up businesses and, of course, the weather is pleasant.

Anyway, one evening we, the boys, decided to go to a Thai kick-boxing event. This had added interest because a lady called Val, from Wick in Scotland, who was living with one of the couples, was competing. She was a cartographer in her previous life but had given up on the rat-race in UK and was now in full time training as a Thai boxer. She is quite powerfully built.

Left: Val in action (red gloves). Poor pics because the lighting wasn't great and they just wouldn't stand still!

PS. The pic at the top is not mine you won't be surprised to learn.

Val won in a closely fought 5 three-minute round bout. She sustained a couple of black eyes and looked absolutely knackered afterwards. We met for lunch the next day and she was quite interesting about this Thai boxing system. As she explained, at one level it is seriously professional. At 'tourist shows' like this it is somewhat contrived. The boxers tend to be impoverished students who get paid £50 per bout, win or lose, so there is not a great incentive to win. In fact, she told me, that it is often better for a boxer to 'take a dive' in the first two rounds because it involves less effort by both parties, they get paid the same, they will be fit enough to fight again sooner and it amuses the crowd. Makes sense! In fact the first two bouts here were over within two rounds and the stricken boxers lay for dead before standing up and staggering around a bit for maximum effect. In a later lightweight girls match neither boxer ever appeared to lay a glove, or foot, on their opponent. They just walzed around and held onto each other. Val said that they were being very careful not to inflict any damage to their good looks. Val did not have this cop-out option because she had the home team cheering her on. She definitely fought to win and her opponent (a rather masculine looking lady) was forced to defend herself vigorously. They also had a 'special' bout involving four (rather overweight) fighters who were blindfolded. They rarely managed to hit anything other than thin air, and the referee.

Right: Archer's Restaurant on Ratchaphakhinai St. owned and managed by an Essex boy called Mark Archer who originally worked for the Midland Bank. He has been here for over 10 years. It is definitely worth a visit and does a proper English style Sunday roast lunch (including Yorkshire puddings of course). Delicious.

A few sights from the Night Bazaar.

Left: This little (real) dog was 'driving' a mini-car around the busy street. It must have had a lot of faith in the remote control operator.

Right: A colourfully attired bead seller.

Left: This blues/rock group was performing on a roof bar inside the bazaar. I'm not really into this sort of music but they, especially the guitarist, were very good in a 'Jimmy Hendrix' sort of way.

Right: This wee lad was singing and 'strutting his stuff' on stage. Impressive performance. I'm not sure why it was considered necessary to have a 'no dogs' sign (if indeed that was what it was).

Again with aforementioned friends, we visited the Royal Project botanical gardens in the National Park to the west of the city. Left: This palace/wat was the central feature.

The gardens cover a huge area with a large variety of features. Some more well maintained than others. It is the brainchild of the previous King. A bus tour is available, although many visitors seemed to be whizzing about the place on bikes. We walked.

It includes an extensive orchid garden which was another popular venue for pre-wedding photographs (right). At another location there was even a large American chap, from Florida, posing with his Thai 'Qatar Airlines' stewardess fiancé. He was wearing an extraordinary costume of Thai origin, trying to look like the King of Siam I suppose. I had an interesting chat with him and then forgot to take his picture (he will be relieved to hear).

Just prior to this we had met up in a pleasant retaurant for lunch. I am always a bit suspicious of Thai dishes as they, unlike the Vietnamese, tend to present meals already spiced up with, sometimes, very powerful chilli seasoning. I ordered what was advertised as a 'non-spicey' dish; trout soup. It was excellent and no spice until half-way to finishing it I unwittingly spooned up a mouthful containing the mother of all chillies. I nearly exploded and must have somehow, when trying to dry my weeping eyes, wiped them with chilli. I was then blinded for some time. 

Swear words were uttered, vociferously. Why do they do this? Were the waiters hanging around to watch just for a bit of a giggle? Bloody annoying, and painful.

There are a few museums in Chiang Mai and I was encouraged to visit the Lanna Folk Museum in the old town. Frankly it was rather boring, consisting mainly of Lanna Folk handicraft, clothing and woven fabrics. It also cost 300 Baht to get in which was poor value for money in my opinion. I just mention this in case you are tempted.

Left: A model of a traditional Lanna folk music group making whoopee as only they know how.

I decided to go on a day trip, by train, to the town of Lam Pang, about 80 miles south-east of Chiang Mai. This sign (right) was in the Chaing Mai station. The service was indeed very polite and efficient, and cheap (about 50p one way) on a local 3rd Class slow 'stopping' train with no air-con, but cool and breezy with the windows open. It took about 2½ hours.  

We stopped at many stations through the hilly Doi Khun Tan National Park area. They were all beautifull maintained as per this one (left), Lamphun I think, and the station staff all wore splendid uniforms. The Thais obviously take pride in their little railway stations.

Lam Pang is 'quite'  an interesting town which is divided into 2 parts. The railway station is in the 'commercial' part and it is a 3 mile walk (which I did to avoid taxis and to get some exercise) to the more attractive part lying along the River Wang.  

I passed this rather strange arboreal umbrella display (right); unless there had been a sudden blast of wind when several umbrella wielding pedestrians were walking nearby and taken by surprise

.....and of course there was the inevitable wat. Left: This one with a large Buddha outside it was quite impressive.

Right: Down towards the river there were many of these horses and carts.......

......which were often in long convoys taking tourists for a ride (probably financially as well), but going from where to where I couldn't think. There was really no beautiful part of the town that I could see. I suppose they just wanted a ride in a horse and cart.

The only civic construction of any note that I saw was this clocktower on a main intersection........

.......before arriving at the riverside.
Here there is a very pleasant guest-house, called, imaginatively, The Riverside Guest House (left). It had some lovely balconied rooms overlooking the river, and a very charming bar and dining area. I think it is run by a French lady. Nice place to stay if you want to look at a river.

Almost next door is the equally imaginatively named Riverside Inn. Again, a very pleasant place at which I had lunch. Fish and chips if I remember correctly, and they had a good selection of beer and wines. These two places catered exclusively for tourists.

I had a good wander around the area and, as far as I could see, there was absolutely nothing else of great interest.

In fact these two places were the only establishments that I could find that sold alcohol or offered a 'western' standard meal. There may have been a posh hotel somewhere or other which I didn't see.

Walking (3 miles) back to the station I passed numerous chemists, hardware stores, schools, health food shops, car spares shops and other rather technical and medical outlets, but with the exception of a couple of small basic cafés, absolutely nowhere to relax, eat and have a drink. I have gathered that the Thai government has a rather prohibitive attitude towards the purchase and consumption of alcohol. Even in the large open air markets, there is no alcohol on sale. They make exceptions for this in 'tourist' areas, but even these have a 2pm to 5pm curfew on the sale of alcohol, although I certainly didn't notice this in Bangkok. I was sweating hard and dying for a cool beer when I got back to the station. None on offer in the local market but, just before the train departed at 5.30pm, I found a local 'Tesco' store which opened at 5.00pm and I got some beer. Phew! The fire was extinguished.

Although I believe there is a national law which makes the wearing of crash helmets on scooters and motor bikes compulsory, I have noticed that outside the main cities (ie Bangkok and possibly Chiang Mai) that this is seldom enforced. It is  as good as voluntary. I reckoned in Lam Pang that about 20% of scooter/motor bike riders wore helmets. 

Now, I am the first to agree that wearing a helmet  when riding a motorbike is a sensible thing to do. I always used to when I rode a bike, and a good helmet at that. However, I am a great believer in the view of a famous politician/philosopher (whose name I have completely forgotten...and a prize for anyone who reminds me) who advocated that laws should only be made to protect you from the actions of others. They should not be made, and you should not be legally penalised, to protect yourself from your own choice of action, however stupid (or words to that effect).  I think I may have mentioned this somewhere before regarding the use of helmets, seat belts, life-jackets etc. if, in a private capacity, you choose not to. There is no end to how many laws could be passed to protect you from yourself. Think about it! Not long ago a lady was sadly killed in London when a brick fell from a building and hit her on the head. How long before there is a law to enforce the wearing of helmets on all occasions!......and seat belts on bar stools, etc. etc......

Anyway, I caught the 'luxury express' train back to Chiang Mai. It was indeed much faster, with comfortable seats and boasted a  powerful air-conditioning system. So powerful, indeed, that I was  almost hypothermic by the time we got home.

Just found it. John Stuart Mill, British philosopher,  political economist etc., 1806 - 1873 suggested:
"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant".
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_stuart_mill_169399.

These old boys displayed a modicum of sense in those days. I certainly agree with his philosophy!

Just a little bit more to come from Chiang Mai when I took a short cruise up the River Ping and then the return to Bangkok.

A DAY OUT - CHIANG MAI

3rd - 7th Jan 2018

Elephant crossing.

Off today on a day tour in the foothills north of the city. I joined a minibus containing a guide, a jolly driver and nine Chinese girls, student types from Shanghai.

Our first stop was at the charmingly named attraction 'Elephant Poopoopaper Park'. A place where they demonstrate making paper from elephant shit. I've seen it before in Sri Lanka, but any elephant country nowadays likes to show off their eco-friendly use of elephants doings.

There are no elephants here but the pathways were elegantly decorated with piles of raw material.

There was even horse and cow shit on offer for manufacture of, perhaps, 'higher' quality paper.

They offered a 'do it yourself' service in the 'Poo Fibre Shed' where you could mash up your own bleached lump, colour it and spread it on a rack. There were, surprisingly, a few takers.

.......and leave it to dry in the sun (left). The trouble with this sort of paper is that it is crap (if you'll forgive the pun). The finished product is like thin  hairy cardboard and pretty useless to write on. 

A stall stocked lots of (not cheap) notebooks and other tat made from it which, again surprisingly, seemed to attract qute a few customers.

After that excitement we moved on to an orchid garden with, unsurprisingly, many colourful orchids on display.

Then on to a butterfly farm where, inside a netted aviary, there were lots of gaily coloured butterflies flitting about. There was a chart stuck on the entrance itemising different types but, not being a lepidopterist, I found it impossible to identify any because they had an irritating habit of flying away when you went to consult the chart.

Next up was Maetaeng Elephant Park. Our visit here started with an elephant show. All very touristy but quite amusing nevertheless. Before the show several volunteers were hoisted up by a couple of elephants. My new Chinese friends liked this as it was good for photo opportunities. 

Left: The handlers/mahouts demonstrated being given a leg-up, either front or back, by the elephants.

Elephants kicked footballs into a goal with surprising force and accuracy.

A mahout lay on the ground pretending to be asleep, a few times actually, and an elephant gently stood on his stomach to wake him up. I wondered how many fatally squashed mahouts there had been before this act was perfected.

Amongst many other tricks they built walls with heavy logs and even had four elephants advancing in line playing mouth organs (trunk organs perhaps).

Probably the most impressive act was this elephant (right) painting a picture. It was handed a brush for each colour, but apart from that did the whole thing unaided. Fierce concentration  showed in its eyes. Extraordinary. After drawing an outline it very accurately coloured it in.

Left: The finished article was impressive. I have seen many less skilfully produced works done by humans displayed in galleries and worth mega-bucks. (see Guggenheim Collection, Venice. Blog Sept 2015).

I don't know how they train elephants to do these tricks; probably with violent electric shocks and beating them half to death with clubs for all I know. But it must be preferable to pulling logs around the jungle all day which is what their existance consisted of in the old days (before tourists). At least they get well fed and are topped up by numerous bananas and sugar cane fed to them by us tourists (30 Baht a bunch)....and the occasional camera.

We then were taken for a ride. Not too uncomfortable and resulted in lots of happy screams from the Chinese girls especially when going up or down steep slopes or steps. You had to hang on quite tight. There were a couple of pit-stops along the route at which we were strongly encouraged (ie cruel to refuse) to buy bunches of bananas and sugar cane (30 Baht) to refuel our elephant on the move. Their trunks were constantly reaching behind their heads for another banana, or whatever.

The selfie-stick with smart-phone on the end is essential equipment for the Chinese tourists (and others I expect). It is almost a natural extention of their arm. They photo themselves non-stop. This led to a 'nearly' hilarious occurrence when one of the girls was selfie-photoing herself feeding an elephant a banana. The elephant grabbed the smart-phone and she was left holding the banana. How she screamed...it was like having her arm amputated. I suppose the elephant thought it was a lollipop. Anyway, the alert handler managed to rescue the phone just in time. What a pity! Which reminds me of a video clip where this actually happened to a Japanese girl tourist. The elephant did  swallow her phone. There was much screaming and jumping up and down. She was told to wait a few hours. The elephant duly discharged a large shit and the handler rang the girl's phone number. The ring tone sounded from the pile of dung, the phone was pulled out, wiped down and was in perfect working order. A happy Jap!

The next entertainment was an ox-cart ride down some dusty lanes (right) with one of my new Chinese friends. Selfie-stick at the ready. We even had to stop half-way to buy more bananas to feed the oxen. I didn't know they liked bananas, until now.

This led us back to the river on the bank of which was a restaurant where we were treated to a very decent lunch.

Then paddled on by raft down the river (River Taing) for a sedate and seemingly endless trip to be met by our mini-bus. 

Next stop was a village populated (I suspect for the day only) by those Muong tribe 'long-necked' women. They were busy trying to sell us colourful fabrics. I had previously seen similar near Inle Lake, Burma where I was concerned about what would happen if they fell into the lake. Would the metal rings take them straight to the bottom? No water danger here but I was given some of the rings to handle. They are solid brass and very heavy! One of the ladies was wearing 25 of them which, I was told and believe, weighed about 10kg (22lbs?). You would not want to go swimming in those. Free-style deep-diving perhaps, but not swimming!

Encouraged by our lady guide I had my face painted here in Muong traditional style. Good for the complexion I was told, but thankfully I don't have a photo of that. It amused the Chinese girls.




Left: Our guide having her face painted.













The next, and final, port of call was another Wat or, to be more exact, seven separate Wats and I've forgotten what the place is called; somewhere north of the city. Each of these opulently decorated Wats is dedicated to a different Buddhist country, ie Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Wales etc. I'm afraid I've rather lost interest in Wats.

Back on the bus with the selfie-stick wielding Chinese and return to the city. I was thinking that as they have 'stick drill' in the British army we could instigate 'selfie-stick drill' for the Chinese. Maybe they already do it.

More to come from Chiang Mai. I'm off with some friends to a Thai Boxing evening tomorrow which features a friend of theirs, a Scottish lady boxer from Wick. Should be interesting!

WATS IN CHIANG MAI

27th Dec 2017 - 2nd Jan 2018

Wat Phra Singh. Chiang Mai

I had intended to go to Chiang Mai by sleeper train, but it was fully booked, so I travelled by 'VIP' bus from Bangkok instead; an 11 hour overnight journey. Not very VIP, but reasonably comfortable with air-con, 'entertainment screens' for which you had to provide your own headset and which I did not have, plus a supply of water, cup of tea and a bun filled with custard given to us by a rather hatchet-faced 'stewardess' at the start. The seats semi-reclined but were not very spacious. I had the misfortune to have a very well upholstered Thai bloke sitting next to me and he did rather overflow his seat somewhat. He had a headset! We stopped mid-route for a complimentary food break. It pissed with rain for the whole journey and I did not get much sleep. The road was motorway for most of the way and, being night, there was not much to see. Indeed I doubt if there would have been much to see even in daylight. Buildings and/or trees lined the road most of the way. We arrived at Chiang Mai bus station at 7.20am and it was still raining.


Tuk-tuk into town and by good fortune I found a cheap and cheerful hostel/hotel called 'Smile House 1 Guesthouse' which offered single rooms for 350 Baht per night (£9). Better than the standard 1200 Baht (£30) offered at most other 'cheapo' places. OK, the decor was fairly rough and ready but my room has a comfortable bug-free bed, hot shower, decent loo, several power points, a good fan and resident Gecko which I have named Gordon. Also a charming staff at the desk and a very cheap and efficient laundry service; plus a pleasant sitting out area around (left) a swimming pool, until the mozzies fly in at dusk. It is also conveniently situated in the centre of the old town. What more could you want?


Whats in Chiang Mai? There are lots of Wats (Buddhist temples), thats what. Right: Wat Kainda Phoolamai. These and massage parlours, tourist information offices (for that read tour sales), tattoo parlours, bars, restaurants and many tourists, ex-pats and, what I am told are called, 'digital nomads'. For some reason there is a preponderance of Americans here, some wearing baseball caps on back to front; a greater concentration than I have seen anywhere else in this part of the world.

This is a big city, but the tourist/ex-pat area is contained mainly within the old town surrounded by a rectangular moat and to an area just east of that.

Left: Part of the moat on the eastern side. There was an engaged couple here having their romantic pre-wedding photos taken, as is compulsory in the build up to any Asian wedding.

I joined the photographer and his team. A stumble or one small push........I was quivering with anticipation of a display of pre-nuptial synchronised swimming.

Left: Part of a reconstructed section of the old city wall and eastern gate inside the moat. Not much of the original wall remains.

Right: Another Wat. Wat Skookin Gudlukin.

Left: Much praying goes on inside these elaborately decorated places despite hordes of tourists (shoes removed) taking photos from behind. 

The monks do 'chanting' sessions in the evening which, I am informed, are very hypnotic. I've yet to witness that.

....Praying not only in front of an image of Buddha, but also in front of very realistic sculptures of, I assume, deceased high ranking monks (right).

Left: These 'images' are incredibly lifelike.

In one Wat, Wat Snieu Pusikat, on New Year's Eve, someone (in civvies, not a monk) was unwinding a white cord which he was draping over and around the large congregation so they were all symbolically joined together, I suppose. 

Left: The remains of what was an enormous stupa at Wat Chedi Luang near the old town centre.













Outside which rows of chairs were awaiting occupants for a service of some sort on New Years Eve.












Left: An example of elaborate decoration around the Buddha at Wat Thai Missit.

Right: Wat Gosup Muscumdauwn. A less extravagant Wat with a more modest stupa somewhere in town.

Left: Monks outside Wat Dyoowan Neow, again on New Years eve, hanging bits of rolled up cloth on an extensive string matrix. I didn't find out the reason for this but I'm sure it was an important one.

Right: Wat Sitalabow Talphee. There were many many more......

...and I think that is quite enough about Wats for the time being.

Left: A curious statue outside the regional traffic cop HQ of a policeman carrying a dead body with a small naked boy grabbing his trousers. I leave you to think of a suitable interpretation.

Right: The river Ping flows through the city. There are river cruises on offer which I might take up. Hopefully, unlike the Perfume river in Hué, Vietnam, there is not a pong on the Ping.

Left: One of the many markets and bazaars around the east of town.

There is a Night Bazaar on Loi Khro St. which features two or three vast semi-covered markets and an uncountable number of bars, massage parlours, tattoo shops and 'tourist information' offices and appears to be very popular. Trouble is, most of the stalls sell much the same things; T shirts, fabrics, sunglasses, wood carvings, jewellery etc. etc. I don't understand how they all manage to make much money. 

Right: However one enterprising stall-holder obviously caters for one-legged women.

I mentioned the proliferation of bars and massage parlours. On Loi Khro, the street leading to the Night Bazaar, I counted (yes, nothing better to do!) on a 300 yd stretch no less than 49 narrow fronted bars and 21 massage parlours. There are countless others on the surrounding streets. Incredible! Perhaps I should go on a massage parlour crawl.

New Year's Eve featured lots of celebrations in Wats, fireworks and swarms of flying lanterns released non-stop all evening (left). They drifted off into the wooded hillsides beyond. I expect the Chiang Mai Regional Fire Service was kept busy putting out forest fires somewhere to the north-east.

Ending this episode on a sad note; the lovely staff of the Smile House Guesthouse own a very old dog, a cross between a labrador and Thai ridgeback. It is 19 years old and a bit blind, deaf and wobbly on it's feet (I know how it feels), but much loved. Anyway, sometime on New Year's Eve it disappeared; they suspect spooked by the fireworks. It hasn't been seen or heard of since despite lots of 'missing dog' posters displayed in the streets. I have been helping them search. Great sadness all round.

Right: A correctly dressed stall-holder preparing for the Sunday night street market on the main Ratchadamnoen Street. This proved to be so packed later on with stalls and punters it was difficult to move.

BTW, they have weird licensing laws here (not noticed anywhere else). No alcohol can be served or sold in bars or shops between 2pm and 5pm. Strange, inconvenient and rather pointless as people just stock up beforehand.

Off on a looksee around the local countryside next................

Pop can mai.