First Tastes of Thailand

We had breakfast on the Mae Ping River Monday morning, sipping coffee and fresh juice and enjoying the peaceful morning.  We decided to hire a driver to see the sights of Chiang Mai, and we were delighted with the mode of transportation he arrived in: A red car!  The 'red car' is the Northern Thailand version of a taxi, and consists of a pick-up truck with a camper in the truck bed and padded benches on its side.  It made for a fantastic ride as we weaved in and out of morning traffic, picking up and dropping off locals on the way.

Our first stop was the Bhuping Palace in the mountains west of Chiang Mai.  It was quite a distance above the city, and we had wonderful views of Chiang Mai nestled in the valley below as we continued upwards.  Built in 1962, the Bhuping Palace serves as the winter home of Thailand's royal family.  The palace itself was elegant but simple, with the most elaborate part of it all being the well-manicured and exotic gardens.  There wasn't a spot that didn't hold the vibrant colors of nature, and we walked along paths lined by brillant red flowers and shaded by towering trees.  The water reservoir that served as the source for the needs of the palace and gardens was also lovely, with several intricate spinning fountains in the middle.

Our next stop was a short distance away, a hill village we deemed a tourist trap and scampered out of after snapping a few pics.  Unfortunately that is the way with many of the hill villages that tourists are taken to, expecting to see living culture but instead confronted with knock-off designer sunglasses and factory-manufactured 'handicrafts'.  Luckily our next stop a few miles down the mountain was better, and we were all impressed by Wat Prathat Doi Suithep, a Buddhist temple considered to be one of Thailand's most important religious sites.  The 309 steps to the top are guarded by the brilliant twin green dragons whose scaley bodies stretched from their heads at the foot of the stairs to their tails at the summit.  The climb to the top was no joke, and we all stopped several times to admire the views of Chiang Mai behind us.  Once inside the temple gates, we paid 10 baht for the obligatory cloth covering to make us appropriate for the temple, and we removed our shoes entered into the main courtyard.  The temple is said to have been founded in 1383 when the first chedi, the center towering monument, was built.  Over time the temple has expanded, and been made to look more extravagant with many more holy shrines added around the chedi.  The original copper plated chedi is the most holy area of the temple grounds, and many worshippers knelt around it, praying and lighting candles.  Within the site are pagodas, small rooms filled to the brim with golden statues, paintings, jewels and other fanciful treasures.  We sat in one of them during a ceremony in which one of the Buddhist monks blessed the people kneeling below him with water he sprinkled from reeds he held in his hand.  At one point Landon got chastised for not kneeling properly, so we decided we'd had enough and walled the rest of the courtyard before getting popsicles and heading back to the red truck.

Our lovely chariot had pictures of baby tigers posted all over it, so we asked our driver to take us to the Tiger Palace in Mae Rim, about a half-hour drive away.  I will admit it was yet another tourist trap, but one I was glad to be caught in because I got to pet and cuddle Mimi and Euro, two adorable three-month old tigers.  The trainer told us they sleep eighteen hours a day, and Euro was definitely in the act and hardly moved when we petted him.  Mimi, on the other hand, was quite rambunctious as she stalked the cage, keeping her trainers busy as she frolicked around.  Her eyes were a bluish-purple hue, and though she was precious, I knew her tiny mouth held some vicious teeth that would do damage if she decided my arm was a snack.  The Indo-Chinese tiger is really quite beautiful, lighter in orange color than the Bengal but with a similar patterns of black stripes.  

After late lunch at the Tiger Palace, we made our way to the last stop on our tourism trail, Wat Phra Singh, located in the western part of the old city centre of Chiang Mai.  Construction on Wat Phra Singh began in 1345 when King Phayu, the fifth king of the Mangrai dynasty, had a chedi built to house the ashes of his father King Kham Fu.  The temple evolved to include several more structures within the beautiful compound, but the entire thing fell into disrepair during the Burmese rule of the area from the late 1500's to late 1700's.  It was only when King Kawila assumed the throne as King of Chiang Mai in 1782, that the temple was restored.  The whole temple complex underwent extensive renovations under the famous monk Khru Ba Srivichai during the 1920s. Many of the buildings were again restored in 2002, and the result is a pristine but busy center of education and training for young men to become Buddhist monks.  Though it was much simpler, I actually preferred it to the ornate Wat Prathat Doi Suithep we'd seen earlier.  It seemed lively and a functioning temple, with all the boys, young men and monks bustling around in their traditional orange garb.  I loved the gardens, which had many signs tacked up with pearls of wisdom like "Ignorance is the real evil."

That evening the girls and I made like locals and borrowed bikes from the hotels to pick up some food and drinks. We all giggled hysterically as I pedaled a bike made for someone half my height and we narrowly avoided all modes off traffic that sped by us.  The bridge across the river gave us a gorgeous view down the Mae Ping, one that distracted Cristine a bit until she realized her bike didn't have handbrakes so she had to make a graceful stop using her Chaco's.  We enjoyed a night in, sitting by the river at our guest house, listening to music, talking and sipping the elegant Sprite, Pomegranate and Orange Fanta martinis that Landon concocted.

We awoke Tuesday morning to the excitement that awaited us: A ziplining tour in the Thai jungle with Flight of the Gibbon!!!  After breakfast by the river, the staff picked us up in a van filled with other traveler that would also be spending the day on the tour.  There were three British hipsters, an Australian couple that ran an English school for poor children in Phuket and the four Oklahomans.  The van drove us one hour outside Chiang Mai to the small village of Mae Kompong, our launching point for the excursion.  We were expertly fitted with body harnesses, helmets then signed the security waiver and headed into the jungle.  The 1500 year old rainforest was breathtaking, and getting to swing and jump around in its lofty heights was fantastic as we rode the two kilometers of zip lines and crossed sky bridges in the rainforest canopy.  I'd been ziplining twice before, but this was the longest course and most exhilirating one I've done.  The variety between the ziplines was great, riding some like Superman, landing in nets, and being lowered hundreds of feet to the forest floor.  The hours of ziplining were followed by a traditional Thai lunch back at the village, then a hike up to beautiful Kompong Falls.  I enjoyed getting to know Tina, a woman about my mother's age, and the teacher at the English school in Phuket.  Her passion for the children she teaches is inspiring.  Her goal is to empower them with English so they are able to get a job in Thailand's busy tourism industry and avoid a life in the streets.  She gave Landon and I her card for the "Phuket Has Been Good To Us" Foundation, and told us to come teach whenever we can.  Sign me up!  

Returning back to Chiang Mai we took a boat from the bank by our hotel to town and had a fabulous dinner of traditional Thai food at the river's edge.  The setting sun danced on the river, and the ornate hanging lanterns illluminated the quiet early evening.  We explored the night market a bit after a dessert of taro in coconut milk, and slept well that night after all the activity of our busy day.

I woke up on Wednesday with so much anticipation it was almost unbearable.  We were going to the Elephant Reserve!!!  Before coming to Thailand, Landon and I looked up several treks that including elephant riding.  We were shocked and saddened when we found out the terrible working conditions and treatment of the beautiful elephants, and their exploitation in Thailand's tourism industry.  Our concern led us to an organization called The Elephant Nature Park.  Founded in 1990, the park serves as a safe haven, rescue and rehabilitation center for abused elephants in Thailand.  The self-funded park seeks out and buys abused elephants from trekking companies, logging camps, breeding farms and street begging operations, and brings them to the park to heal and live a more peaceful life.  I was already in love with the mission before I had even set eyes on the beautiful elephants, but as we pulled up to the peaceful park and got my first glimpse of them I was speechless.  Located 60 kilometers from Chiang Mai, the park is cradled in a beautiful forested valley and bordered my a river on one side.  There is a large complex of wooden buildings interconnected by decks and bridges that serves as the home base for the staff and volunteers of the park.  The staff works tirelessly for the elephants.  They prepare the hundreds of pounds of fruits and vegetables the elephants eat each day, they educate tourists and volunteers, they bathe the elephants, provide medical care and are occupied all day with the routine care of these amazing animals.  At the park, each elephant has a mahout, or trainer.  Rather than teach the elephants tricks like a regular trainer might, the mahouts are the beloved friend of their elephant, responsible for their well-being on a daily basis.  We got to act a little bit like mahouts, feeding the elephants and bathing them in the river.  I was amazed by the incredible amount of food they eat.  I was delighted when they would take huge chunks of watermelon and while cucumbers from my hands with their strong and agile trunks, expertly bringing it to their enormous mouths to crunch in several bites.  They put down several hundred pounds of food each day, and I could see why when my heaping laundry basket of fresh produce was gone in five minutes flat.  Throughout the day I learned the stories of many of the elephants, the majority of them terribly sad.  There was Jokia, a blind elephant rescued from logging camps.  Her owner had purposely blinded her as punishment when she refused to go back to work after the death of her baby.  There was Lilly, a young female whose owner had purposefully addicted her to methamphetamine to coerce her to work.  She had come to the park on death's door.  My heart hurt the most for sweet Mae Do, an older female with a broken back from continually being put into restraints to be forcefully bred on at one of the cruel commercial breeding operations.  Her back was deeply swayed and her body controrted in impossible and painful ways when she walked, and I had tears in my eyes when she gently would take food from my hands.  I just don't understand animal cruelty.  I don't.  Looking at the scars and bony deformities on the backs of the elephants rescued from trekking and elephant riding companies, it made me realize the responsibility I have to be an informed, conscious tourist and just in general life decisions.  We watched a really great documentary about the efforts of people in Thailand promoting better treatment of elephants through petitioning against using elephants for street begging, trying to end the horrific native process used in the villages to tame elephants and educating the people of Thailand about the shrinking populating of these incredile animals.  In the past few decades, the number of elephants in Thailand has dropped from 100,000 to 5,000 and continues to decrease.  

The best part of the day was bathing the elephants in the river.  They get bathed twice a day and you can tell they love every second they spend in the cool river.  We splashed water all over them with big buckets, and their ears flapped with contentment as they showed their agreement by splashing water on themselves with their trunk.  The whole day was so wonderful and peaceful it was somewhat surreal, and it was with reluctance that we got back in the van to head back to Chiang Mai.

That evening we asked Te, the kind and smiling owner of our guest house, to recommend an authentic Thai restaurant with really spicy food.  We were tired of getting the tourist version of Thai food, which lacks the characteristic fire of Thai food that we craved.  Well, we got what we asked for.  There wasn't a tourist in site at the restaurant our hotel driver dropped us off at, and we all had watering eyes and noses and burning lips as we chowed down on Tom Yum soup, red curry chicken, spicy salad and lots of crisp vegetables.  We finally got the taste of Thailand we had been looking for, and the result left us hastily scooping coconut ice cream in our mouths at the end of the meal to cool the fire.  We hoped we'd built up a little tolerance for the spicy food we'd be sure to eat in Bangkok the next day!