BKK-CNX: Chiang Mai stop #1

Posting this blog with less pics, then adding later, the app seems to have problems uploading, and I don't know if its the internet, the ipad or what.... So if it seems disjointed, this is why :) This is why there was a delay too...
Chiang Mai is in the north of Thailand, approaching the famed ' Golden Triangle' who's real claim to fame was the flourishing opium industry of the Victorian era in Asia.

However, teak wood hauled from the forests by elephants are also a claim to fame, and as the word triangle suggests, there's three shared borders, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. The aim is to make a crossing into each.. Chiang Rai is the next stop by road from here, then we return one more time to Chiang Mai before flying back to Bangkok. Only an hour flight in, but bumpy enough to make me glad it was over, oh it's the same with all of them...
Chiang Mai is full of old temples of course...

Some like this one are even older than me... By hundreds of years... Hard to believe !

And even at night there's plenty glitter...

A whole neighbourhood of fruit!

This is the wholesale fruit market area, and there's literally tons of tropical fruit, from finger (monkey) bananas to huge Thai mangos - there is some elevation up here, so it's hot like Bangkok during the day, but a bit cooler at night - just right for all sorts of fruit I can never get at home...
Shopping for fruit for Dave; Mana to the rescue, because not being a tourist means...lower prices everyday!

Jackfruit tree!

I think Mana finds it amusing that I am obsessed with lovely tropical fruit.... But I ate a half kilo of mangosteens and two large thai mangoes (they are around 9" long) just as a pre bedtime snack - it's worth a trip just to gorge...
This first evening in Chiang Mai, Mana's wife and son, Farlouk, are flying out to join us...
It looks as though people here are worshipping gold - and I don't know why but most of the Buddhist shrines are covered in it...




This little Hmong girl was shy...

First time I have seen monks actually working...

They do a pretty good job though!

This hill tribe area still grows a few poppy plants, and they harvest the opium resin from the seed pods..

No sampling provided...
This is the original opium poppy... No samples...
Okay, so this one I am too lazy to turn right side up, but Mana makes a good drummer...

Mana and Farlouk at the elephant camp...

And a zillion school kids.....

If you ever think you have a bad job...

These women catch the giant elephant turds dropped in the river, and those elephants pee by the gallon too....

Oddly, they turn the turds into a type of paper.... Art paper no less... And I can think of several people who already think they have this job, but I would love to see them actually do it ;)
The elephants are also famous for paintings.... And they go for decent prices...

Below is a common sight here.... Pachyderm derrieres... Reminds me of my workmates...

Look at the picture below, a nelly the elephant painting, which I perhaps should have made an offer on....

I refuse to do elephant rides anymore after how they were treated in India, but they are interesting creatures...
Off to hike up to various levels of a waterfall...

There's not much temp change here over the year, just wet and dry season, so it's our winter - the dry season - the trees do look dry....
Below, is the crew, and some friends of Mana's wife... Nice people, they own a shop selling items to take to the temple.... And they cooked up a ton of food for lunch, which we ate in the shop. This was one of those great moments of travel - stepping into other people's lives.... Loved it... Oh and we had fresh young coconut flesh too.... Only a few will know what I mean... It's not the white coconut you know...it's a clear jelly inside an immature coconut, Mana says in Thailand people believe it makes you talk too much, so not to give it to his wife :)

This area of Chang Mai makes umbrellas.... And they had a lot!
Hand made, hand painted...

And of course a tribute to the royal family at the end of the street - Thailand has these everywhere....

The crew posing...

And for less than $2 I had a dragon painted on my iphone!

Off to a hot spring, and it's past boiling point, so very hot....

The local geysers are just like Yellowstone...

And we boiled eggs

Then boiled our feet and I am not sure why... It was not boiling here, but it was pretty darned hot... Perhaps it stops the swamp feet that seems to occur in the tropics, so I boiled my feet until bright red too....

Dinner ended day 2 at a nice little hilside place, you can see the lights of Chiang Mai in the distance...

Off to Chiang Rai tomorrow morning ! Worn out! Stuffed with food too!
:)

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