The comings and goings of the Minsky's in Thailand.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Touring Chiang Mai sights with Claire and Jonathan

Visitors from home are one of the best things about living for an extended time in Thailand. Our first visitors from the states were Claire Vernon and her boyfriend, Jonathan Smith, from Reno. Claire is our God-daughter and we have known and loved her since she was a tiny baby. Now she was here visiting us right after Christmas on her break between graduating college and starting graduate school. I had spent some happy hours planning the trip with her and Jon. Our first outing was to the Mae Sa Elephant Camp about 30 minutes outside of Chiang Mai. There are at least three elephant camps located near Chiang Mai; this is the closest one and I had read reports that the show was very good. None of us were disappointed—we had a wonderful time there and spent the whole morning at the Camp. Several elephants were outside greeting the crowd. Vendors were selling bunches of bananas and sugar cane for 50 cents and the elephants performed for these treats. They took off your hat, held it for a minute, then put it back on your head, giving it a final tap. They allowed you to pet them and posed for pictures. It was very up-front and personal. The elephant’s mahout remained at his/her side at all times. Every elephant has a mahout and responds to the commands of only his mahout. A backup mahout also works with the elephant but for all intents and purposes it is one elephant and one mahout for life. The mahout lives at the elephant camp with his family. There are also cleanup people who follow behind the elephants to sweep up their dung. This dung is made into white paper. Since there are over 75 elephants at this camp, it is a good-sized community. The first event was watching the elephants bathe in the stream. They take baths three times a day and looked like they enjoyed splashing and spraying each other in the water while their mahouts scrubbed them down. We then took our seats to watch the show. In addition to the tourists in attendance, many Thai people were at the show. Elephants are the national symbol of Thailand and the Thais were introducing their children to the majestic animals. We loved the show. It was very unlike any elephant show I had ever seen at the circus. These elephants were not wearing colorful costumes and accompanied by beautiful women in sequins—they did not twirl around on little stands. They demonstrated teamwork and showed how they moved huge logs and maneuvered them into stacks. They showed agility with their trunks by having a dart contest with a member of the audience. They did a bunch of other things but, most remarkably, they painted pictures! I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Five or six elephants were given paintbrushes and were positioned in front of their easels. We watched as they all painted pictures in their own styles (see pictures below of their work). Later, we went to the art gallery on the grounds and saw a huge mural done by several elephants for their successful attempt to be in the Guiness Book of Records. It was a jungle scene and it was beautiful—no pictures were allowed to be taken of this mural but take my word for it, it was very impressive. We had hired a private van, guide, and driver so we could take our time and visit the baby elephants in the nursery and tour the elephant museum with its detailed displays about elephant anatomy and common illnesses. We wandered around visiting and posing with the various elephants walking everywhere with their mahouts while Claire and Jon waited their turn to ride the elephant. Ever since my ride on an elephant several years ago when we were in Thailand, I have been fascinated by these wise, gentle animals. This visit expanded my knowledge and respect for them. From here, we went to have lunch at the orchid farm and then visited a shopping market. It was a full fun day.

The next day we went to the number one, “can’t miss” site in Chiang Mai—Doi Suthep Temple. This is the same temple that you will recall seeing in our first set of Chiang Mai pictures—we can see it from our balcony, way off in the distance, on top of the mountain. Now we were winding up the mountain road with hundreds of other pilgrims in every mode of transportation imaginable—motorbikes, cars, SUVs, vans, buses, and songtaews. What a crowd! Doi Suthep was especially crowded on this day because it was New Year’s weekend when Buddhists traditionally visit the temples and walk three times around the chedi (the golden tower). There are two ways to get up to the Temple, by walking up hundreds of stairs on the Naga Staircase (Claire and Jon walked down this staircase after our visit) or by waiting for one of the elevated cars to take you up. We opted to wait for the car. We amused ourselves by playing peek-a-boo with the babies waiting in line with their parents. Finally, we made it up to the top and were greeted by traditional music played by students. We toured the grounds of the Temple. Since it is located on top of the mountain, on clear days you can see the entire valley. In the temple complex, there are many murals, statutes, a big Buddha, and monks who give New Year’s blessings. Our van then wound down the mountain in a slow crawl. After lunch, we visited Bo Sang, famous for its colorful, hand-made umbrellas, and then we went to see the silk and jewelry factories.

We spent New Year’s Eve that evening at the Galare Market across the street from the famous Chiang Mai night market. The Galare Market has many food booths, an outdoor stage, and several beautiful Thai dancers performing traditional dances. We then went down to the Ping River to see the launch of the paper lanterns—five foot high hot air balloons. Hundreds of them floating in the air are quite a sight! Claire and Jon launched one of their own. By midnight, Jules and I were back home and watched several fireworks displays from our balcony—one of which was launched from the parking lot two streets away from our building. We had a front row seat.

The next day Jules, Claire and Jon took an all day, hands-on cooking class to learn how to make Thai curries and popular Thai dishes like panaeng curry with pork. They were able to eat their creations. An all day excursion to the Royal Flower Show the following day capped the Chiang Mai portion of their trip. This show began a few months ago and will end on January 31. It is a special event in commemoration of the King’s 60th year anniversary of his ascension to the throne. People from all over Thailand have crowded into Chiang Mai for this event, filling up every available hotel room. Many countries had pavilions at the flower show but the US was not one of them. In the evening we had dinner with Peggy Lombardo and her friend, who were passing through Thailand on their way to Myanmar (Burma). It is great to have visitors who bring a little bit of home with them.

Jules had planned all along to accompany Claire and Jon the next day to Bangkok to get them acclimated to the very big city. We were especially glad that he was with them in light of the New Year’s Eve bombings in Bangkok. There are two theories floating around. One is that it was done by Thaksin’s people (he was overthrown in the popular coup several months ago); another theory is that the southern Muslim insurgents, who have been fighting in the very far south, had expanded their fight to the capitol city. Rumors abound. The only good thing to say is that the bombs were confined to New Year’s Eve and security has been tight since then.

The deluxe Minsky tour of Chiang Mai has been beta-tested and is online ready to go. Will there be a trip to Chiang Mai in your future? Why not? Check out EVA air, the national airline of Taiwan, for cheap fares. Claire and Jon took China Air and were satisfied with its service. Yeh, it’s 17-22 hours away and that’s a lot of flying at one time; but it’s worth it! Once you get here, you can eat a good meal at a restaurant in Chiang Mai for 60 to 100 baht ($1.66 to $2.78) and stay at a very nice motel, including breakfast for 1150 to 1500 baht ($32 to $42), a night. You’re a little late for the best weather in Thailand—November to mid-February—but there’s always next year.

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