Doing it like tourists

Monday night while coming home from our massages with the rehabilitated prisoners, we ran into the LDS missionaries who were on their bikes heading home. They called one of the people from their congregation who drives taxi and speaks English. If she was a licensed massage therapist she would have had the trifecta and been canonized our Thailand Saint.
They called her right there while we visited on the street and arranged for her to pick us up in the morning. See what happens when you do a good deed for the Prison Program and get a massage... the good karma just keeps on coming.



This turned out to be a "typical tourist" day. Not that we hadn't been doing some rather tourist type stuff all along, but this took us on the traditional route tour buses are running folks to see.



Our little sweet taxi driver Thor (not to be confused with the God of Thunder), was wonderful and very accommodating. She wanted to take us to all the things that most folks seem to enjoy. So, we started with the Doi Su Thep Temple which is up on a hill overlooking all of Chiang Mai. It is very picturesque on a clear day and when they are not renovating the temple. That said, it was still a very beautiful building and a source of pride, for the people of Chiang Mai for good reason.



There are over 300 steps to the top. Everyone kept telling me the exact number but I kept ignoring them hoping the sweet little monks would have installed an escalator before we arrived. They did not, something about sacrifice bringing forth the blessings of Buddha. (If the three of us win the lottery or something you should all come out here and climb yourself some steps.)



A couple of the fine points about visiting a Buddhist Temple:

There are plenty of folks who wear shorts and tank tops and it seemed like in most temples the monks won't say a word. In others they will ask you to rent something to be properly attired. We had actually done our home work. When visiting most of the temples we wore skirts or long pants. Not to jump on a soap box or anything, but these are sacred places to the people of this faith and they are very kind to allow us into a part of their world to enjoy the beauty, history and culture. It seems like honoring their faith in this way is a small thing to do as an outward manifestation of our inward thanks for their abundant graciousness.



Okay we are off our soap box.



Over the course of the day we visited:

• A silk factory where we saw how silk was made and learned why it was so expensive. One of the little facts that blew us away is that from a single silk worm cocoon they get a 500 meter length of silk thread. One cocoon... 500 meters. They had a shop where they produce the silk and weave the the cloth. There were some really nice clothes and oddly enough they were all very soft and smooth, like silk.


• We also saw how they make lacquerware, umbrellas, rugs, and jewelry. It was interesting and the amount of time that goes into making these items is amazing, but to be honest it was just not our cup of tea.

We also visited the Hill Tribe people from Burma who came to Thailand as refugees over 20 years ago. They have been moved around 3 times over the 20 year period and there is a lot of political debate about how they are being dealt with.

We don't know nearly enough to make any sort of comment. (That's a first.) They also create a lot of hand crafted items which they sale in their village. Truth is, it felt a little voyeuristic and yet they depend on tourist buying their wares to make a living. They also farm, have live stock, and chickens and seem to have built a life for themselves.

The "Long Neck Tribe" refers to the tribe whose women wear these heavy brass coils. They don't make their necks longer but the coils push their shoulders down. It seems painful and archaic and it is hard not to impose our Western values on their cultures and traditions. Truth is they would probably find our tradition of accumulating and consuming rather silly.

The one empirical comment we can make is that the women and girls of this tribe are beautiful. Not your ordinary beautiful... no they are stunningly beautiful and we found ourselves staring, not because of the neck coil but because their faces are just so darn pretty.

We also went to the CORNIEST Snake Show in the history of Snake Shows. This being my one and only.... that make not be a fair statement... no I lied; it's fair. It was the CORNIEST ever. The Thai guy had a sound system with loud music that he would turn up and down modulated by his comic narrative. His common lines were:

• "Ohhh dangerous!!! Do not try this at home!"
• "Dees ees the most vemonoous snake in Thailand. He bite you; you die. You die we no take you to the hospital"
• "Dees are well trained boys. Do not try dis or you die. You die we no take you to the hospital"

If we'd been thinking we would have done a video. Loaded it on You tube and made a fortune. But the BEST part was watching Suzi wet herself on at least three occasions. At one point they threw the snake out of the pit up into the audience. Now on a good day Suzi is pretty fast. On Snake Day she is a blur heading to the top row of the bleachers.

Tammy and I were laughing too hard to move. So if the snakes had bit us, we die and they no take us to hospital. We got back from the tourist traps and were feeling pretty stressed out with the snake attacks and all. So we scheduled our last massage in Chiang Mai. I saw Suzi cry a little when we were leaving.

If you are planning a trip to Thailand, we would suggest skipping this day except of course for the massage.

Missing you... okay we lied. We're having the time of our lives and don't so much miss you as we wish you were here... really.

suzi, tammy & shawna