We get up fairly late, I think it's going to be a lazy day today. As we come downstairs the proprietress suggests her own tour up into the Golden Triangle (the area around the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, due north of here) which, on reflection given that we know nothing about any of the tours here must be as good as any. A lot of the tours tout visiting the hill tribes and staying with them overnight. This sort of ethno-tourism frankly doesn't appeal. Not only have the locals been well tooled up to receive tourists normally with shops and restaurants to cater for them but the very act of wanting to receive tourists on such a grand scale (read: anything other than lost expeditions or researchers) surely destroys the culture of the people -- see anywhere where the major industry is tourism. There's also some claim about the eco-tourist aspects of waking up at dawn in amongst nature for which I wonder why people don't just pitch a tent underneath a big tree at home which has the added advantage of a reduced risk of catching dysentry or polio.
Still, deliberating what to do, we drop into the Art Cafe to select from its choice of eleven breakfasts and read yesterday's paper on the war. The heaviest casualties reported seemingly a McDonalds/Columbine moment. The Americans really do need to review their gun laws when even the highly trained merrily shoot each other by accident or design. A great tag line at the bottom of the front page: "Other news: Oscars night" followed by a couple of column inches.
We staggered back out after an hour and a half and over the road to the very well stocked second hand bookshops though it's not cheap, good copies fetching B300 -- almost £5. We then decided that given our flights to flu infested Hong Kong on the 3rd April that we don't have time to tour Thailand so we might as well relax here for a few days rather than in the smog of Bangkok and as such we might as well catch up on paper work in the 27C air conditioned room (air con doesn't get it any cooler but believe me that's perfectly cool after being in the sun). Maybe we'll pop out and see a Wat (there are dozens in Chiang Mai) later.
Late in the afternoon we set out, armed with a tourist map into the blazing sun. I was going to write about how Chaing Mai seems cooler than elsewhere but the sweat dribbling down my back belies any such thought. Tourist maps are notoriously vague, presumably to give the tourist a feeling of exploration in a strange city and it's not too long before we hit a dead end on what should be a major thoroughfare. Not to worry, just backtrack and try again. Chaing Mai has a lot of modern conveniences whilst retaining the small shops and street hawker "charm" of other parts of Thailand. There's a Mediterranean feel with countless wires strung between telegraph poles often neatly ruining any picture of Wats. The roads and pavements are in some turmoil as an old city-wide re-paving using modern small set blocks/tiles [is in progress]. At several road junctions the traffic has been driving over piles of earth for long enough to neatly smooth it out. The traffic, mind you, is quite Roman in that it pays little heed to any obstacle (especially pedestrians) and at junctions there appear to be no obvious rules at all.
We do find a few Wats, though -- Chiang Mai does have over 300! -- which look a little drab in the city, not aided by the sun sinking low behind them, they mostly open to the east. We don't enter any of the compounds, though, unsure if we'll be ejected by a burly monk. We're lost again but eventually hit the moat road that surrounds the old city and follow it back round. Not far from our exit we find a bar with CNN and stop in it for a refreshing beer and to catch up on the latest from the Gulf. Of course one beer becomes another and another with pizza and it all becomes a bit of a blur. CNN didn't appear to be reporting anything that's stuck [in mind].
Home Place Hotel, Chiang Mai N18.78697 E98.99442 Elev. 292m Home Place Hotel, Chiang Mai
Copyright 2003 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.
