A.S.I.A.: From the Islands to the Mountains

May 5, 2010
Chiang Mai, Thailand

One of the gates in the wall around Chiang Mai

It's amazing how drastically the landscape changes with only a few hour flight.  Rather than being surrounded by white sand and blue water we were greeted by majestic mountain ridges and lush northern jungles at the Chiang Mai airport.  A short songteaw ride brought us to yet another beautiful hotel, the Imperial Mae Ping, where we put down our stuff, freshened up a bit and made our way out into the city.

Teakwood Wat

Having been to CM a couple times before I had a pretty good grasp on some of the things we should see and brought Mom and Sue along on a walking tour through the city.  Despite being much farther north than we had been previously it was still shockingly hot as we were walking around.  We were sure to take our time and take ample rests/water breaks amongst the many temples and side streets we wandered.  Now, during this time the red shirt riots were in full swing down in BKK and a large population of the rioters were from the North, CM included.  While we were walking we stumbled across a small vendor stall with some red flags on it and beneath it was sleeping a small Thai woman-actually she looked dead.  A fearless Sue was able to rouse her and, after a bit of confusion as to why a group of tourists had woken her up, asked her if we could buy one of her flags for a souveneir.  She was more than happy to share with us and away we walked with some hand made protest flags (for free!) 



Inside one of many temples



I brought Mom and Sue to one of my favorite sites in CM, the women's prison/ rehabilitation center, for a quick look around-Sue brought some handmade table cloth to support the women :)  Our next stop was at a nearby massage parlor where some of the inmates are given jobs upon their release and where I've had a couple of my best massages in Thailand.  I must say it's a bit strange being massaged in a calm environment with some of the women looking a bit rough and tattooed, but they do a great job! (Unfortunately there was no impromptu comedy show as Mom was actually given the massage she had asked for) I treated Mom and Soup as a Mother's Day gift and after we were all tiger balmed up and relaxed we headed back to the hotel.  As was routine, we spent some time in the lobby with a happy hour special and background music provided by a young Thai girl and her khim (a small stringed instrument that you hit with mallets sort of like a you hit a xylophone.)  After a wonderful dinner we caught a bit of the Elvis look a like who was now performing in the lobby and then made our way to bed--after all, we had stayed up the entire night the day before!