Chiang Mai This Place is Nice
When people think about Southeast Asia, Thailand often comes to mind first. Formerly Siam, this ancient civilization is a culturally rich tourist haven. Tourism accounts for 6% of Thailand’s GDP. For comparative purposes, the US generates 2.6% of our GDP from tourism. Thailand’s main economy is export focused. I bet you have a few clothing items in your closed that are “Made in Thailand”.
During our trip planning Thailand was highest of the list of places to dig into and explore, chiefly because it’s fairly cheap, safe, and open to foreigners (or farangs as we’re called by the Thai people). Our original plan was to get a six month multi-entry visa (MEV) for Thailand and make it a sort of “home base” for our travels. We wanted to explore all around Southeast Asia, while knowing we could go back anytime. After weeks of research we realized the requirements for the MEV were too much to handle. You needed to have a job at home (nope, sorry), plus proof of that job that isn’t a paystub (what, how?) then statements showing $7,000 in the bank, plus we’d have to pay $200. We didn’t want to lie or pay that huge $200 fee, so we opted to just keep hopping and avoid having the “home base”. That meant our first stop out of the Far East and into Southeast Asia was Thailand for a one month stay.
As you know, we jumped into Bangkok first and spent a pretty intense 10 days there. The King had passed away six days prior to our arrival and the city was transformed in ways that no one could have envisioned. A sea of Thais were arriving daily to pay their respects and mourn his loss. The sadness was visceral and all entertainment was cancelled, including even simply playing music at bars. Black was the standard garb and locals and tourists alike were encouraged to wear it. For being in the tropics, Thailand has some fairly strict standards of dress. This includes no shoulders or knees showing, with many Thais opting to fully cover their legs and arms. No, tourists don’t have to comply, but it’s again encouraged. So, when temperatures feel like 107 F, you’re suppose to wear all black and be covered up in order to be modest. Jason and I care about respecting culture and modesty, so we wanted to make sure we covered as much as possible (read, it’s hot and just got hotter for us).
Really, it’s mostly important to be covered at temples. Thailand is a swarm of Buddhist temples. They’re everywhere, with over 40,000 throughout the country, and my goodness they’re stunning works of art and religion. 94% of Thais follow Buddhism, a religion that has origins in the country from the 3rd century. I’m personally a big fan of Buddhism for their culture of nonviolence and belief in the changing nature of the universe. Out of all religions that I’ve encountered this one speaks to me the highest.
Something I never got over was seeing monks draped in flowing orange robes, walking the streets, with canvas shopping bags carrying their simple belongings. Thailand has between 200,000 – 300,000 Buddhist monks, so they’re easily found. Monks can be of the city or forest variety and the monks have to follow over 230 rules. How do I know all this? When in Chiang Mai I participated in a Monk Chat to learn about their unique way of life. The monks were very open to my questions and were actually quite interested in what I was doing in Thailand and where my travels had taken me. Many were intermediate English speakers, so the conversation provided them an opportunity to speak with a native English speaker while engaging in a cultural exchange.
We spent 17 days in total in Chiang Mai, so besides spending time with Buddhist Monks and sweating we also had a great day playing with elephants at Elephant Jungle Sanctuary. My mom had gifted me some spending money for my birthday (thanks again, Momsie!) and this is what we opted to spend it on. In Thailand there are several options to interact with wild animals. You can pet sleepy (read: drugged) tigers at Tiger Kingdom or ride elephants at several parks, which is terrible for them on many levels; or you can go to one of several elephant preserves in the area to help care and interact with the big lugs in an environment that’s specifically designed to make them happy and keep them safe. We opted for the humane elephant preserve (of course!).
The day started with an 8:15 a.m. pickup from a “red truck”, a Ford that’s been outfitted with bench seats and a cap on the bed that had windows cut out of it. The back of the cap was completely open to climb into and out of, there was no door. Staying by the train station meant we were a good 30 minute walk from the city with few hotels that far out, so we weren’t sure if this truck was going to take us to a van to drive up the mountain or if we’d be getting more passengers and going on our way. The latter ended up being true. By 9:10 the truck was filled with 10 people, driver included, and we were heading up to the sanctuary in the mountains of northern Thailand, in a truck, with no door on the back. Hey, at least we were all the way on the inside!
Zig zagging through the mountain passes we drove fast. The driver claims we were making up time because two of our fellow riders were late. It seemed likely that they were very young newlyweds, at least according to me and the three hilarious German ladies that I shared a few laughs with. The couple surely wasn’t dressed like they were going to play in the mud! Either way, as for the crazy drive, you eventually became used to the crazy conditions and almost comfortable with it. A cool blew into the cabin and all around us were beautiful vistas. Peace set in, that is until the road no longer became a road, but instead a kind of truck “path” that steeply jetted us into an even closer to near death situation as we drove inches away from sheer cliffs on tracks wide enough for just the two truck tires. Somehow, we didn’t die (either coming or going!). The day has hardly started and yet our adrenalin is pumping at full force.
Instead of going into great detail with the elephants I’ll just share some pictures here to show you what happened.
Another special treat in Chiang Mai was the Loy Krathong Festival. This was one of the main reasons we decided to go north to Chiang Mai instead of south to the world famous Thai beaches. Loy Krathong roughly translates to “to float a basket” and is celebrated throughout Thailand on the full moon of the 12th month of the year. These baskets are generally banana leaves decorated with colorful flowers and sometimes hold a coin as an offering to the river spirits. Fireworks and big celebrations are generally part of this annual event, but with the King’s passing all of these extra demonstrations were toned down. Paper lanterns, however, were still part of the event and were just as magical as you can imagine.
Yi Peng, another full moon even, is the reason these lanterns are part of the Loy Krathong Festival. For Thais, the lanterns are a symbol of merit, a Buddhist belief in doing good deeds to bolster personal enlightenment and ensure you have a better next life. I’m happy regardless of their reasoning, because watching these lanterns take off was a top bucket list item for me and completing it is like floating on air 🙂
Chiang Mai has become a favored city for Jason and I because of it’s medium size, natural setting, good food, mixed culture, and some great people we met during our stay. It’s #2 thus far for me, right behind Seoul, for this trip.
It’s funny how each place we’re only at for a short time, yet in my mind I keep thinking, “Oh, we can always go back if we want. We’re in SE Asia for a while.” but, in reality, we will most likely never return to these destinations and I have to be OK with that inevitability. Travel, to me, is the definition of bittersweet. Often, I’m thinking of home and wondering what you people are up to out there, living normal lives and spending time with those you love. When I’m not thinking of that I’m planning our next move, where to go and how to get there. I’m thinking of what’s on the agenda for tomorrow. I’m worrying about the budget. I’m looking at maps. I’m dreaming of our time in Europe. I’m considering how I feel both guilty to live this way and immensely blessed. I’m trying not to kill Jason as well, and vise versa 🙂
Travel requires patience and perseverance. I’m no model for either of those traits and often I’m rushing through something and stressing me and/or Jason out or bored that there’s nothing to do for a brief period of time instead of being productive and planning or just being. Patience and perseverance. I’ve never been a hobby kind of person. I’m a worker bee and that’s always been my hobby. I like to feel useful and I’m grateful that I’ve had great jobs where that feeling has been realized. In travel, you consume everything and you don’t give anything unless you make a concerted effort to take on volunteer work. This week, I signed Jason and I up for Work Away, a website that connects hosts looking for volunteers all over the world with their projects and willing workers. Like WWOOFing, Willing Workers on Organic Farms, Work Away is for all types of work and the great part is they most often pay you in room and board. With this we can save money, learn some new skills, feel useful, meet new people, and keep having fun traveling. I think this is exactly what I need to make this trip go from good to great.
If you have specific questions about anything or want me to cover a topic, versus a country, just ask! Before I left people wanted to know about our budget and backpacks, if there’s interest I can write a blog on those topics or others. Thanks for reading! Until next time!
