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Published: January 1st 2015
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Christmas lunch in Chaing Mai We have 8 nights in Chiang Mai over Christmas. It is a chance to sleep, rest, reflect on the journey so far, do computer admin, read books and skype with family.(This guesthouse has good free wifi!)
We also have a couple of adventurous outings to tell about....
Chang Mai is a very busy tourist destination. There are loads of places where you can book various tours and adventurous outings which pick you up and drop you back to your accomodation. (Trips are not cheap by Thai standards, but very good and reasonably priced by UK US or Australian standards) There are also temples, markets, restuarants and massages etc to explore.
First day we walked through the old walled city and visited a large temple. Here they had a programme running called'Monk Chat'. We were glad to sit and talk to 2 monks , and ask them a bit about their lives, because we have seen so many monks of all ages since arriving here, and had many questions. (except there were some things we wondered about, but thought would be rude to ask!!!) These 2 were both from Myanmar and in their 20s. They said a boy can become a novice
from age 7 upwards. Can only be a monk age 20 on. Over 20 a person can become a monk after a very short time as a novice (even a week) if his mentor thinks him ready. Many men become a monk for a while, and then leave. They said the Thai king was a monk for about a month. They can go to Budhist school and university while young, where they study other subjects in addition to Buddhism. These 2 both said they wanted to return to Myanmar and teach English as monks. They get up at 5am and chant for 2 hrs. Then they go out collecting alms from the people so they can have breakfast.They have only breakfast and lunch....no dinner. There are very very few women monks, although it is possible for a woman to become a monk. Whilst men have 227 rules to obey the women have over 300. (In Buddhism it would seem, as in every other world religion and sphere of life, women get a raw deal). At the end of the chat Fred shook their hands and I put my hand out to do likewise...but they recoiled in horror, explaining they are
forbidden to touch a woman at all.
Christmas Eve we had a great day out flying along zipwires across the jungle with the Skyline Adventure tour. We were twice the age of the other participants, but this didn't matter. We were driven up into the mountains past little villages with sleepy dogs, chickens, and trays of soya beans outside drying to the start of the course. Here we met our guides, who were brilliant. They took us along a 3 hour route through the tree tops consisting of 28 ziplines, 4 abseils,4sky bridges, and 6 staircases. The route started with fairly short zip lines to build our confidence, getting more and more exciting until the final 900m line right across the valley. Fantastic.....closest thing I can imagine to flying! The guides entertained us throughout by doing funny stunts like turning upside down half way across the zip line or abselling head first at speed. They were also very capable photographers, using all our cameras to take action shots and videos of the proceedings as we went. A top day all round (and thanks to
Joe Mok for the loan of your camera and pics).
Another brilliant day
out was the elephant day. First they drove us to an elephant farm out in the hills. There they told us how to approach an elephant (from the side, catch her eye, hold her ear and stroke her trunk), before getting us to feed them lots of bananas. They taught us the Thai words used to ask the elephant to walk, stop, lift its leg to help you climb on etc. (infact we didnt really need these as both elephants and mahoutes were well used to the walk down to the river). Then we rode the elephants a short walk bare back down to the river to bathe. 2 people to each elephant, and a mahoute walking beside each. The elephant bathing in the river was really fun....they lay down and we were given brushes to scrub them. They also seemed to enjoy this nice refreshing dip. The mahouts were encouraging them to shower eachother and the tourists with water from their trunks and laughing. Then we were given another little bare back ride through deeper water, before dismounting and walking with the elephants back up to the base for lunch. In the afternoon we were taken in a pick
up truck to one of the mahout's homes, where he got us to cut sugar cane for the elephants, (and also chew some ourselves). After this we went back and fed this to the elephants, and spent some more time fussing over and photographing them before a quick shower and being driven back to our guesthouses. (due to ongoing camera problems and the difficulties of photography while bathing an elephant or riding bareback, we havent got fantastic pictures yet. We hope and expect to add these just as soon as the proprietor puts them on his facebook site. Week or 2?)
Other than this, we have eaten very well, lounged about in the park, been swimming and lay on sunbeds at one of the hotel pools, had a Thai oil foot massage, attended a Christmas church service, and walked around the markets here. Another Thai oddity...in the market they have very small baskets containing tiny birds. You can pay to release the birds and thereby gain merit. Lots of various foods and nice clothes in the markets.
Final outing we did was a trip up the mountain to the temple Doi Sethup. This temple is special because of
its amazing views over the city and because of the big golden stuppa which gleams in the sunlight. It is very busy, with a steep staircase to get there. On the way up there are little children dressed in traditional costumes from the hill tribes, who pose for photos with tourists for money.
And just over a week after arriving it was tuk tuk overburdened with luggage back to the station, and sleeper train back to Bangkok for New Year.
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