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Published: August 5th 2009
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View with rainbow
taken on the ascent up the mountain to Wat Doi Suthep,which is located just outside of Chiang Mai Thailand Continued (Part 2)...
After all the pool, beach, and diving time, we headed north to Chiang Mai to enjoy some 'real' Thai culture and see the jungles. On our way north we picked up our good friend Shaun who we know from Sydney (he's now living and working in Hong Kong) and the three of us landed at the Chiang Mai Airport, where we were met by our Cornell friend, Josh Plotnik. Josh has been living in Northern Thailand for about a year and a half studying cooperative behaviour in Asian elephants for his PhD thesis. He was excited to show us around his new city and with fluent Thai he organized the trip of a lifetime that no normal tourist would ever get to experience.
While in Chiang Mai, we made the drive up a mountain on the outskirts of the city to visit Wat Doi Suthep. This temple is perched on the top of the mountain and has beautiful views of the city, and we got there just in time to watch the monks chanting and the sun starting to set. We quickly learned the proper protocol and ways to show respect while visiting temples in
Thailand and we gave our offerings of flowers and lit candles and incense. The people believe that the offerings you give during your current life help you build merit for your next life, so we gave generously at this opportunity. We also figured out our 'Buddha Day' (that’s not the technical term), which is one of seven Buddha’s that corresponds to the day of the week that you were born.
In Chiang Mai, as well as in the other Northern provinces we visited, there was always a market (or 2, 3, or 4 markets) to keep us busy. We had a great time exploring the night markets (more touristy souvenirs), the food markets, and even the furniture markets that we happened upon by mistake. There were always food vendors selling meals on the streets and in the markets, and thankfully we had Josh there to translate and order food for us. We have no idea what we were eating, but the street food in Chiang Mai was some of the best food we had all trip. (and the cheapest - at about 50c a meal!). We found lots of interesting 'items' in the market stands (as seen in the
Wat Doi Suthep
small building within complex photos), but the most exciting (for matt) were the insect treats. Mounds and mounds of fried insects were presented to us and we all took our turn trying a few, some of us getting more adventurous than others. We did figure out by the end of the trip that they always taste better after having a few local beers - our favorite was Chang (which means elephant).
This leads us into the next part of our trip where we headed to the locations where Josh was doing his research on elephants. The first site was the Lampang Elephant Center, where Josh runs experiments to see if and how elephants will cooperate with each other to reach a common goal (ie - get food). At this site, which is government run, the elephants put on a show for guests to raise money for the onsite research and elephant hospital. One our favourite parts of this show was the elephant painting, which you can see in the photos. We actually bought the painting in the middle of the three elephants! We also took a quick tour after the show and learned how to make paper out of elephant poo, visited the
elephant medical centre, and went for a ride on top of one of the elephants.
After a day in Lampang, we headed north of Chiang Mai into the wilderness to spend a couple days at Josh's observational research site at the Elephant Nature Foundation. While there, we fed the elephants bananas and squash two times a day and went down to the river to help with bath time once a day. This was a great way to closely watch these amazing animals and get a chance to see multiple elephants interacting with each other on their own time. At this location we met Josh's mahout (elephant keeper) friends who take care of the elephants and they showed us their local pub (which is also the convenience store) down the road from the park in 'town', where we were treated to the local delicacies of chicken feet, chicken gizzards, and Thai rice whiskey. Once back at the park, where we stayed in a bamboo hut, 'we' spent the night collecting the plentiful beetles that were flying around the patio lights. Josh even tried to show Heidi how harmless these little creatures are by sticking one in his mouth!
The
last leg of the journey involved even more insect collecting as we headed Northeast about 6 hours to the Nan Province. Travelling by night, we happened upon a black-light setup on the side of the road. After making a u-turn to investigate, we were presented with some amazing specimens by a group of 4 young brothers and their mother who were collecting bugs to sell at the markets the next day. After Josh explained Matt's interest in insects, more and more live beetles came out of different buckets, and they insisted Matt keep several of the largest and most beautiful ones. What a find! We eventually made it to Nan that night, where we stayed at an amazing boutique hotel and tried some local northern Thai dishes for dinner. We quickly found out that it would take more than a week to build up our heat tolerance because although the flavors were amazing, we couldn't feel our mouths after two bites. We spent a day in Nan visiting the old temples, and then went a little farther north to Doi Phuka National Park. The landscape here was spectacular, completely unspoiled and without ay other westerners/tourists around. A park guide (local
Making offerings
Lighting candles and leaving flowers is believed to help you gain merit for your next life with nothing better to do) took us on a hike to a secluded waterfall, so secluded he was using his machete to clear the overgrown path along the way. It was an amusing hike, especially when our tiny Thai guide insisted on giving Shaun the shoes off his own feet when he saw how he was struggling in the mud in his flip-flops. (They were about a size 7, which was about 4 sizes too small). They did the trick though, and we shortly arrived at the waterfall as the sun was coming out, and hiked up through the water to the top. We spent a night here in the National Park, in a rented cabin, where Matt collected even more insects (the total for the trip is about 150!).
Overall, we had an amazing time travelling around this part of the country and owe it to Josh for giving us the VIP tour of the area. We felt like we really got to experience the Thai culture during this leg of the trip and the people we met were extremely warm and friendly.
That's it for now, but a quick stop in Bangkok on our way out is
still to come...
Stay in touch,
Matt and Heidi
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