Beauty...and the beast

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Chiang Mai has been simply fantastic. One of our favourite places so far. A Northern hub surrounded by far away misty mountains with a bustling city life filled with night markets, shops and incredible food options. We stayed near the "Old City" in the heart of CM at a quaint hostel, Chiang Mai Thai House, just off the main road on a small soi (street). We paid 400BHT a night (insanely cheap after the islands!) and got a big bed, fan, tv with an English movie channel! A POOL and super cheap restaurant. We loved it. The old city is surrounded by a moat which gives it a slight medieval feel. This city is filled with history. There are hundreds of Wats scattered all around, and parts of the original city wall built over 700 years ago still stands.

On our first night we headed to yet another super-touristy-yet-must-do type of attraction...Muay Thai fight. Despite the number of 'farangs' there..the outdoor stadium was also packed with locals cheering loudly for their "pick" (literally, as they bet on winners) I never knew so much pride, tradition and symbolism took place in Muay Thai. The players would each approach the ring, kneel down in prayer, have a prayer said to them by their manager/trainers before having their traditional rope headpiece removed. Then go in the ring and perform what could only be described as a dance around each of the 4 sides of the ring.Then shook hands/gloves with the opponent. The fights themselves were very cool to watch as well. There were 6 total, including one international fighter from Spain. We ooh'd and ahh'd and witnessed 3 KO's! Fantastic fun. I much prefer Muay Thai to traditional boxing or even UFC. Dave on the otherhand appreciated the traditions and skills of Muay Thai but prefers his UFC.

Whilst in CM we also did another must do..a full day cooking course. Thailand's North is synonamous with cooking "schools". Generally we would consult Trip Advisor, Lonely Planet etc. for a recommendation or get a general consensus and make our own decision. Instead we took the advice of our awesome hostel manager JJ and went with one of the smaller less touristy schools. Neung was the owner and she herself picked us up the next morning. We were the only two that had booked a course for that day, so we got her allll to ourselves! We started by heading to the local market, shopping for the ingredients we would require. A very colourful and fun way to start the day. Neung bought us several treats that we hadn't tried before, and explained about the many different spices, meats and herbs. We got to her school/organic farm and set off to make our dishes.

We made a total of 5 traditional Thai dishes plus a curry paste from scratch. We got to eat all our delectable dishes and keep a recipe book of all her recipes. Dave's Basil Chicken was amazing and my Massaman Curry was to die for (by Dave's standards..lol). In between dishes we hung out in her garden laying in hammocks! Such a zen environment. Her stations were set outside in the midst of her organic garden, it was a very relaxing and informative day. Highly recommended.

We also went to a night market and a Sunday market. They sure do love their markets...and although the famous phrase "same same but different" certainly applies here, we still enjoyed strolling the stalls and seeing all the trinkets, even if they are all the same. We stayed in CM for 3 days and I'm typing this as we sit on our 3 hour mini bus ride to our next destination, Pai in Northern Thailand.

As I sat there and look out at the city wash away and the countryside appear, I can't help but notice the two girls sitting infront of us. They are giggling and oogling over their pictures from the last few days. I glance over and see exactly what I expected to see. 2 girls + another 2 people straddling an elephant with a huge saddle on it's back, 2 girls smiling broadly as they pet a 300lb tiger as if it were a domesticated tabby (which looked as though it had lost its' will to live), 2 girls sitting on either side of a long-neck tribe woman....etc...etc...

I start contemplating what this trips' purpose is to us.

On one hand some of the touristy things we have done so far have been amazing experiences. On the other, seeing the poor drugged tiger with its' giant head in the lap of some giggling girl..makes us sick to our stomachs. We had the chance to speak to some locals about the exploitation of all the animals, natural resources and even people (long neck tribes) around this area. We learned that any joe shmo can start an elephant camp or "conservation" and charge astronomical prices for tourists to spend the day riding elephants that underwent horrific "training" to be able to carry people, day in and day out, without protest. They're beaten, starved and kept in an isolated area, basically sucking the life out of them.

The tigers that you can pet and play with are drugged (according to the locals) and also "trained" to accept the thousands of farangs that photograph and tag themselves on FB.."OMG me and a tiger! #tiger #amazing #tigersarebeautiful #ChiangMaiTigers etc...

The mysterious long-neck tribe that you can trek up to is nothing more than women from nearby Burma who come here to make money. You go into their "tribe" and all you find is a market where they sell you mass produced trinkets.

These issues have been long standing in this area..and although we haven't seen for ourselves what the elephants, tigers or long-neck tribeswomen look like. We have heard many first hand accounts from people who have and their recount of the experiences have been that of a negative opinion.

Now we write all this not to attack anyone who has or will come here for any of these experiences. It's a vicious cycle of tourists wanting touristy and "authentic" experiences and locals wanting to cash in. One will always need the other and so I doubt it will ever end. Rather, to make you a little more aware of the animal cruelty and neglect that goes unnoticed and uncontrolled. In the hope that you might be a little more conscious when choosing an outfit to see the beauty that Thailand possesses.

We were going to go to the Elephant Nature Park where you do not ride the elephants on a saddle, only bare back with one person per elephant. You were able prepare their food and wash them in the river. This establishment seemed perfect but we found 5 other outfits offering the same experience. We both had our reservations and so opted not to partake.

All in all, we can definitely appreciate all the versatile activities one can do in Northern Thailand. It just seems like such a shame that so many unsuspecting tourists hand over their money to bullshit companies that 'swear' you are getting an "authentic" experience.

So the question remains...to do or not to do?

I guess everything in moderation. We will definately be more resourceful when picking an outfitter to do any touristy activity. Also we're going to try to do as many as we can by our own means as we have been so far. Chiang Mai still remains a top destination with many versatile options for adventure/entertainment. We will just not be putting Tony the Tigers' head in our lap.

...and that's our rant for the day 😊

Now onto Pai..lovely bohemian, hippy Pai! We arrived in Pai after a 3 hour hair bending mini bus drive through the mountains. The road consisted of basically all sharp turns! But still, the scenery was awe inspiring. As per usual it seems, we arrived right in the midst of a Holiday and a big parade all through town. This one was a Buddhist Holiday where people attached money to these tree looking gadgets that were carried with the parade through town. We quickly oriented ourselves (in other words Dave oriented us as I'm horrible at orientation of any sort) and figured out where our guesthouse was. We were at the end of the main walking street by the small river and had to cross a super dodgy but kind of cool bamboo bridge to get to Pai Country Hut. We pre-booked on Agoda for $14 a night and got an awesome hut in a lush garden with a fan, comfy bed and outdoor bathroom!

Now we know we said Chiang Mai was one of our favourites...I think Pai just took the award. This place is soooo cool! Surrounded by mountains, the walking street comes alive at night with vendors selling street food and clothing for dirt cheap! Funky restaurants and bars line the small streets and it just has that hippy, artisan vibe to it. We feel right at home. On our first night we walked around a bit enjoying the Buddhist Holiday festivities and watched the hundreds of paper lanterns being released into the dark skies. Tres romantique! We ended up buying our own lantern to release in our garden surrounding our hut. Our first full day in Pai was spent looking at tattoo shops (sorry mom, but I really do like looking like a convict/pirate) as we planned to get some ink done in the next few days! We also lazed in our hammock on our porch for about hmmm 5 hours. Catching up on news, emails and of course blogging 😊

We will continue the chill fest for another 2 days until our visa runs out at the end of the month, (which is a good thing, otherwise I don't think we would ever leave Pai) then off to sleepy Laos!

We'll update before then.

Love,

D&A

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