Chiang Mai

We just got back from a three day trip to Chiang Mai. It was a great break. Chiang Mai is maybe the second or third largest city in Thailand, in the North. We learned a lot about the history, but briefly the city was built there in around 1200 AD. It was walled with a moat around it. The wall is still partly there, and the moat is a very evident square in the middle of the city. We stayed by the moat on the outside of the old city. It was a very friendly area for tourists.

We spent much of time outside of the city seeing temples, including some from the first days of the city that were just unearthed a few years ago after a flood hundreds of years ago. The oldest thing we saw was a carving of the buddha from around 2500 years ago. They think it came from India and was brought to the first wat (buddhist temple) in the city.

I had left here expecting it to be something like Gatlinburg, but was thankfully mistaken. We stayed at the Lai-Thai Guesthouse and I recommend it. Their staff was great, their tours were reasonable, and the food was very good. Some of the best Italian food I think I've ever had was at Stefano's just up the street. I keep feeling compelled to speak to "people with accents" in French or Spanish, but was finally able to follow that impulse (approximately) when Stefano met us at the door to leave. I also highly recommend The Roof-Top Bar. It was great, with floor seating on thick, cushy bamboo mats. There was a retractable awning -- we arrived while it was raining outside and when it stopped, to our surprise the roof slid back exposing us to the night sky. I guess it was on the 5th floor of a building, and getting to it required a lot of ducking under things and going up sketchy, steep staircases. Not a good idea for a bar I guess, but it worked.

I feel like I worked on my Thai a bit. I can say a couple phrases in ways that are understood. That's a big accomplishment. The city was very modern. I had some business to see to, and we met at a mall that surpassed many I've seen in the US. We went to a movie at another mall Sunday night -- Ocean's 13, which was entertaining. We struggled to buy our tickets because we had to select our seats on a computer screen before going in. It was confusing. Between the movie and previews was a short tribute to the royal family during which everyone stood. It was strange. On the whole, the three day trip seemed like a week. I think there will be plenty to do if/when I go back. Getting there was difficult, taking fully half a day on cramped buses. Returning we spent 6 hours on a VIP bus that went much faster.

My job there was to deliver a 100 page document in Burmese to a translator to have it reproduced in English. I had the only copy and there is no known electronic copy, so I had to find a place to photocopy it first. When I walked in to the small shack with a copier in the middle, the owner asked for my passport in broken English. I think that is the only reason people of no color usually come in. Eventually I explained to him that I needed to copy the book. I am not sure if he'd ever seen Burmese before. It was all very entertaining, and enabled me to spend about an hour (handing him pages) hanging out in "real" Thailand (as opposed to tourist Thailand). It was a different feel catching a tuk-tuk (maybe the motorized version of a rickshaw?) to go to my meeting. I didn't have the guilt associated with being a clueless, illiterate tourist since I felt I had a goal or some other reason for being there. That feeling lasted for an hour or two and then I was back to being a tourist. Also of note, one of our tour-guides was Karen. We still weren't completely forthcoming about what we are doing in Mae Sot, but he seemed excited that we knew something about his people.

In general, Chiang Mai is the sort of place I think I could spend some time. It's extremely friendly to tourists but at the same time still a functioning Thai city. There is a lot of mountain biking around, although it would take a while to find it without paying $50/day for guided trips.

There's some more going on, but I'm tired and this is probably long enough as-is.