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Published: October 15th 2006
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Hye peeps, just a quick blog.
We'er in Chiang Rai right now. It's a very nice little chilled out place and we've basically just been chilling. There are lots of nice Wats here and a great Hiltribe Museum - will tell you about it next time as we are off to visit more tribes in Loas. There is also a nice night bazzar which has live thai folk music all night. It's the kind of place my parents would like I think.
Tomorrow morning we're off to Laos. A bit scary at the moment because our guide book is crap and we don't have any currency- this isn't our fault. Apparently everyone uses thai baht in Loas and so no one here will change money into Laos Kip. Anyway it should be fine.
I'll blog again from Laos sometime soon. Take care everyone
Jen
Right here is the full story on Chaning rai now I have time to Blog properly.
Well we stayed in a very nice place in Chaing Rai run by a bloke from Great Yarmouth who knows how to make a cup of tea. He was really nice and invited us to
have a drink with him and his friends in the evening and it was nice to chat.
On the first night we went to eat in the Night Bazzar which was nice as they have performances by loacl folke musicians and dancers every night. On the next day we went round some Wats and to the Hill Tribe museum. In one Wat that used to house the emerald Buddha that is now in Bangkok, I saw the most enomous turtel in the pond. I was just watching the normal sized turtles when this huge head the size of a football emerged and put one flipper on the side. It then vanished never to be seen again. I stayed for about half and hour trying to see it again. It did make me wonder if i imagined it but there were other people there who saw it too.
The Hill Tribe Museum was very interesting. It gives the whole history of opium and heroin in southeat asia. Did you know that Britian went to war with china twice over opium suply? It is one of the main crop grown by tribes in southeat asia even though it is illigal.
A lot of the worlds heroin comes out of south east asia and apparenlty a lot of young people come to Laos just to get off their faces on opium. Don't worry mum, I wont be doing any of that!
The other interesting and auful thing I learned in the museum concerned the Long Neck karren Hill Tribe. They are a group from the Karren Tribe who waer brass rings rounf thier necks to stretch them and hold the shoulders down so the neck appears very long. There are loads of trips advertised everywhere to go and visist long neck villages ....but it's all a scam. The long necks are actually imported from Myamar and forced to sit it replica villages all day so stupid tourists can go and take photos of them! It;s like a team park, or freak show. These people are actually being badly exploited and put on show. I was shocked by this. So if your planning to go to thailand don't go to see the lnog necks. Instead go on a treck with a company that supports village economy and works for the benifit of the tribes.
Attached to the museum is a resuraunt called cabbages and condoms - not as strange as it sounds. They aim to make condoms as easy to get hold of as cabbages in the face of the growing Asian AIDs epideic. Brilliant veggie Thai green curry! You get a free cup of tea here if you go the museum too.
On our last day we chilled out a lot. We had a long chat to an old thai man whoes cafe we eat in at lunch time. It involved us with our phrase book and him with a Thai english dictonary. We did manage to chat fro ages though. We then spent most of the evening chatting to an American guy who is something of a philosphy fan and was facinating to talk to. We covered philosphy, Whitby and duracula, the year 1888, astrology, literatuer etc etc.
So all in all a very chatty time was had. Chaing Rai is a very chilled out place which was good to relax in.
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kate
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I hate librarians
Hi jen, sounds like it's all going great... i'm working in northumbria uni library, i never fully realised the true meaning of boredom until now!! Argh, want to be in thailand too!! Kate xxx