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Landed at Chiang Mai International airport (who knew it's international?!) and off we went to pick up our bags & to the reservation desk to book accommodation. After a 20 minutes of bargaining and being haggled by the guy, we left on our own with no reservation. Picked up a map and got in a cab and got dropped off in the center of Chiang Mai city. After touring a barrage of roach infested hole in the wall places, we settled at a place on "discount for you" at 450 baht @ an alley street.
Dropped off our bags and off we went to explore the rest of the city. We have been crazy foodies for the last 24 hrs, eating non stop all the delicious food at the awesome BKK, so dinner's nowhere in the picture.
Chiang Mai is a cute little place, with less number of tourists and tourist traps. The rest of the night was spent exploring the city, visiting the Night Bazaar, and planning/booking our "wild adventures" for the next few days which included lots of touring and a trip to the outskirts of Chiang Mai on a Moped.
The rest of our time
Wat Chiang Man
Chiang Mai's oldest temple built in the 1290s! Located within the walls of old Chiang Mai city, this temple is said to have been a home to Chiang Mai's city founder, King Mengrai.in Chiang Mai, we did a full day trip visiting the Butterfly Farm, Orchids Farm (Orchid is the national flower of Thailand and they love their orchids), Elephant Camp, the Long Neck Tribe, and the Mae Sa waterfall.
There aren't any pictures here from the Karen Long Neck tribe visit just because it felt tacky and rude to be snapping away. The story of the long neck tribe is interesting. Part of a group of several hill tribes, the Karen ethnic minority group is the biggest tribe and originated from Myanmar (Burma). The group resides in Burma still, with a small section living in Northern Thailand to work in the tourism business. The small group resides in a small area in Northern Thailand and charges a small fee for all visitors. Upon visit, they share(and sell...that's the way it works to survive) their crafts work and their culture with interested tourists. The tribe is known as the long necks because the women bind their necks with brass coils. The coils are given to girls as early as four years old. As the girl gets older, the coil is replaced with a longer coil. The weight of the coil pushes
the collar bone down and the neck lengthens over time. The size of the coil is given in kg. For an average young woman, the coil is about 8 kg, and the older they get, the heavier the coil. According to google...the stretched neck is actually only an illusion; it's really the clavicle deformed. So why do they do this to themselves? The tribe believes that the brass protects the women from spiritual and physical harm in the shape of tigers that attack the women at home when the men are out hunting for food. Yikes.
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