Chiang Mai, Thailand 27.03

We travelled to Chiang Mai on a VIP bus from Chiang Rai, as it was the only one that ran at a good hour for us. The seats were adjustable in every way possible, and there was only 3 seats in each row. Food and water were served to us like in an aeroplane.

Surprisingly we found two monks on board. One was sitting next to us and was eager to talk. Even more surprising to us, was that he had travelled all around Australia, and had lived in London for several years. We discussed politics, life as a monk, living in Thailand etc. He was a great guy, we gave him our address and email, and let him know he could visit or stay with us in Australia if he came back. How bizarre!

Old Chiang Mai

Once we settled ourselves in to our accomodation, we set off to explore the old city which is still partially surrounded by the original wall and gates. The weather was so humid and hot, just walking was exhausting!

The city was absolutely filled with pagodas and temples. We visited one or two, but generally just wandered to see the sights. We found the Museum of Arts and Culture, so we decided to stop in and take advantage of the airconditioning.


Museum of Arts and Culture It was quite an impressive museum! There were multimedia options for learning about every exhibit. There were voiceovers in the language of your choice, computer programs to browse, buttons which lit up pictures and maps, videos etc. The museum was mostly about the history of Chiang Mai from the stone age up to now.


Night Life
That evening, we hired a scooter at a local travel agent, as we were planning to visit the Monkey Centre and the Snake Farm in Mae Rim. At the travel agent, Loren discovered a brochure called 'The Flight of the Gibbons'. It turns out it was a 3 hour version of the 'Gibbon Experience'! We were thrilled to find it, so we booked it for the next day.

For dinner, we took a scooter to the Night Bazaar and wandered around until we found a cute outdoor garden restaurant. On our way, we wandered through the Thai boxing venue which was filled with sleazy bars and pool venues. Unfortunately there were no games on that night.

Artur quickly realized that the area we were in was where he stayed last time he was in Chiang Mai with his parents. We saw his hotel, and the huge hotel across the road that was being built while he was there. He was lucky enough to see the kickboxing last time he was there.

After we finished checking out the night bazaar, we realised that we were craving ice cold watermelon, probably because of the heat. So we rode off the the local market to find some fresh fruit.

We bought red watermelon and yellow watermelon which was new for Loren. We also bought cactus fruit, which is bright pink on the outside with little green protrusions and is white inside with black dots that are like poppy seeds. It's quite nice actually. We bought bags of ice as the watermelon was hot from the weather and we had no fridge. So worth the effort!

The Flight of the Gibbons
The next day we started off early for our Gibbon adventure. When we got there, we chilled out for a while drinking tea and coffee and meeting the other people who were in our group. Once we were equipped with harnesses and bamboo sticks for brakes, we headed for the tree tops.

We arrived at the first tree platform from the top edge of the valley. The first few ones were short, to get us used to it. You just pushed off the edge of the platform and dangled on the harness as you flew to the other side. If you needed to, you could use the bamboo stick to slow your ride.

The third one was the longest, it was heaps of fun! We were lucky, these zips were the highest in the world! It had just been built a few months before, so all the harnesses were fresh and new. Apparently some were 70m high! It didn't feel scary though because there were so many branches below that it seemed like the ground was just there beneath us.

At some points, we were lowered on a rope to lower platforms. The last time we did this, we did it face first! Like spiders with our arms and legs dangling as we were lowered to the ground.
The people in our group were really friendly. We met two girls who are living and studying in Hawaii, two guys from Bath, England and an American family of 3. We had a great time with them and we all exchanged details hoping to host each other when we are back in our respective countries.
After a delicious lunch, we headed off to see the waterfall. We hiked up to see all 7 levels of the waterfall. There were supposed to be a lot of baby anacondas around, but only one of us saw it. Loren was most disappointed. The top levels were slippery, but we wanted to see the snakes, so we persisted. They were nowhere to be found, so Loren just cooled her feet in the fresh pools of water.
Snake Farm

We arrived back to Chiang Mai, and we thought we'd only have time to see the Monkey show. So we rushed off, and made it about 45 minutes before the show started, so we headed back down the road where the snake farm was. This show went for 30 minutes, so we had just enough time to see both!

We loved the snake show! They showed us the fangs of posionous snake and then we had to touch it for good luck. There was a hilarious commentator who talked in a monotone voice, and had music that sounded like Indiana Jones theme music playing. Everytime he spoke, he turned down the music. It was one of the best parts!

The performers tossed snakes out of bags and the snakes would try to bite them and chase them. The guys would try to pick them up again. They got bitten a lot, maybe just on their clothes, but only by the non-poisonous snakes. At one point, a guy caught 3 snakes, catching the final one with his mouth.
We got to hold a huge python and kiss it for good luck. Some of the women were so scared. It was pretty funny later, the guys told us there was a jumping snake which could jump 46m high. Then out of the box came a long thing that flew up and into the crowd, it turned out it was a piece of rope! Some of ladies nearly had heart-attacks.

Monkey Show
Afterwards, we went to the monkey show. We saw a little baby monkey sucking its thumb, so cute! But then we saw all these other monkey with chains around their necks, tied to poles. We thought they must just have them waiting there for the show.
The show started with a monkey demonstrating the different steps in their training to pick coconuts. There was also monkeys riding bikes, lifting weights, playing basketball, doing push-ups. Loren also had her hands tied and the monkey undid the knots and then sat on her lap.
Holding the monkey was great, and probably the experience that most people want is to be close to an animal or even hold it. However, the rest of the show just made us sick. You could see that the monkeys were bored and unhappy, and they were constantly chained, even while performing tricks. The things they did seemed so unnatural and cruel. We didn't really enjoy the show at all.
Afterwards, we wandered around and saw the tiny cages that the monkeys were kept in. We also realised that the monkeys chained to poles were not the ones used in the show, that's just how they were left to live. We were shocked, especially seeing as monkeys are used to the freedom of the jungle not tiny cages and chains.

After dinner, we headed to the airport to fly to Bangkok. We saw almost everyone from the Gibbon trip at the airport!

Overall we found North Thailand to be much friendlier than Bangkok. A lot less people tried to cheat us. Some even corrected us if we misunderstood and gave 40 baht instead of 14.

An Interesting Ride
Here's a drawing of something we saw, that we didn't manage to catch with our camera. We thought it would be hard to imagine without a sketch to help you understand.

A dog riding on a motorbike, wearing black sunglasses! Believe it or not, we saw this as we were riding on our way to see the snake farm. It caught us by such surprise that we pulled the camera out too late. The dog was about as big as the owner, and straddling the seat with his legs, and putting his paws on the handlebars! Incredible!