We to took an optional half-day tour to visit the Mae Salong Hill Tribe, this morning, so we had a 5:30 wake up call, and had to be on the bus by 7:00 am. All of the Gate-1 tours seem to be a little bit different, based on the tour director that you have. Mike, our director, decided that he really wanted us to see a tea plantation on our way to the hill tribe, which is usually not included in the half-day tour, but it is something that he thought we would all really enjoy.
We drove for about ½ an hour, then pulled into a parking lot where we switched transportation. We also had a potty stop at this location. Most of the places where we stop for restrooms have at least a few western toilets, but sometimes there are only Thai style toilets which we all fondly refer to as squatty potties. Some of the women refused to use them, but I didn't mind them at all. Some of them flush like western toilets, but some of them, you fill a pan with water, and pour it in to flush, like the one we had today.
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| This is a true Thai squatty potty |
The tour bus that we usually ride on is too big for the mountain roads that lead to the tea plantation and the hill tribes, so we had four combis waiting for us. Combis are covered trucks with bench seats in the back. They are often used like inner city buses, but for us, they were our mountain transportation. We had six people in the back of each truck.
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| Our lineup of combis |
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| They are quite comfortable on the inside |
Our ride up the mountain roads was truly beautiful, with views of pineapple farms and beautiful cloud covered hills.
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| A pineapple farm |
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| Rice fields and jungle |
Our first stop was the Choui Fong Tea Plantation which was established in 1977. The ride up the mountain road was very pretty, and as we approached the plantation it became stunning! The tea bushes were in immaculately groomed rows, lining the rolling hills. It was an amazing sight. Our combis pulled into the parking lot and we had a chance to take a few pictures before jumping back into the combis and continuing up to the processing plant and store.
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| Beautiful rolling hills of tea |
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| Our combi |
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| I wish this was our house!! |
When we got to the processing plant, the first thing we saw was the withering (or drying) area. It was a very large area where they spread the tea leaves to dry.
Attached to the withering area was a very nice gift shop and snack bar. We enjoyed some samples of Oolong tea, and then moseyed into the snack shop where we enjoyed a Thai tea on ice fro purchase.
As we overlooked the tea plantation, they were picking the tea leaves right below us. They are all hand picked (they pick only the top three leaves of each branch) and tossed into baskets that they carry on their backs.
The tea pickers worked so quickly and with such precision. Below is a short video:
We really enjoyed watching them do the picking, they are so quick and so precise. If they make a mistake and pick more than three leaves, they discard what they don't want and put the good leaves in their basket.
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| A snail on a banana leaf at the tea plantation |
When we finished at the tea plantation, we continued higher into the hills of northern Thailand, to where the hill tribes live. We learned there are five major hill tribes, all of which originally came from Burma and are very poor people. These tribes are Yao, Lisu, Hmong, Aka and the Karen.
Over the last 30 years, Thailand has made huge efforts to eliminate drugs, so they have given the hill tribes incentives to not produce them. The government tries to get them to grow coffee, tea and cotton in place of poppy. If they do, the government will pay them the same amount they would have been paid for their poppy crops, and provides them with medical and education benefits. The hill tribes have agreed to this, so they are welcome to stay in Thailand, but they are not allowed to move around the country.
In the long neck tribe, the women are the only ones who wear the neck rings. They wear them because of their superstitions, believing that the rings will protect their throats from tiger attacks, but because of the rings, they feel like outsiders in Thai society, and most girls do not go to school. Girls start with six rings, usually when they are about five years old, and add one ring each year. They can get up to about 30 rings. The rings are not individual, they are actually one long piece of metal. Once they wear the neck rings, they have to wear them for life. If they are removed, their necks will snap and they will die. We aren't sure how they change their neck rings each year.
Some of the women in the long neck tribe choose not to wear the neck rings, and this seems to be okay. The hill tribes have a small amount of technology, for instance, we saw a few cell phones and a solar panel. Mike said that most every village in Thailand has electricity. We were allowed to look inside a typical house, and see how the hill tribes really live.
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| The eldest woman in the tribe that we saw |
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| One of the tribes men engraving by hand |
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| His work was very slow and methodical |
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| Their housing is quite basic, but this have a few modern conveniences like bikes |
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| Four people usually live in one of these small houses |
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| They had corn growing in their fields |
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| I would assume the wood is for cooking. They don't need it for heat. |
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| A papaya tree |
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| A close up view of the papayas. I have never seen them growing before |
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| Notice the birdcage in the background |
Steve really struggled with our visit to the hill tribe. He felt very torn between wanting to see/support the tribe observe their way of life and supporting a practice, via our visit, which he has some very strong opinions against. When we were finished looking around the hill tribes, we took our combis back to the bus, and headed back to the hotel where we met up with everyone else and checked out.
Our first stop as we left Chiang Rai was the White Temple. A fascinating story evolved around the White Temple. A boy who grew up as a monk in the temple, eventually left the temple and became a famous artist. Later in his life, he came back and painted the walls inside this temple. the paintings were very interesting, but no photography was allowed of his artwork inside but we are able to show the very beautiful and interesting outside.
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| These are the restrooms. Quite elegant! |
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| You make a donation and get a little charms that are used the decorations around the grounds of the White Temple. This tree is made up of the charms |
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| The charms up close |
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| Here they are hanging from an awning |
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| Very Interesting. They are reaching up to you as you cross the bridge to the Temple |
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| The temple closed over the lunch hour. We were among the first after lunch and hence had the entry without any people. Very nice to see it this way. |
We really enjoyed walking around and inside the White Temple. When we got back on the bus, Mike had a wonderful treat waiting for each of us. A bag if cut up, very tiny pineapple. They were the tiniest pineapples I have ever seen, and SO good and refreshing!
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| Steve's tiny pineapple cut up in a bag |
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| He's holding it be the stem, you can see how tiny it is |
On the road to Chiang Mai, we stopped for lunch at coffee and pie called Saun Jarin. It was in a beautiful jungle setting overlooking a river. Steve had sweet potato pie and I had taro root pie. They were both delicious!
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| You sure can't beat this for lunch! |
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| The restaurant overlooking the river |
After we finished our lunch, we went outside to explore. They had a bridge that lead over to cabins that you can rent,
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| We think these were to help reduce erosion. |
and they had aviaries with some of the most exotic birds we have ever seen. They were hard to get pictures of, but this will at least give you and idea.
As we drove further down the road, we took a break at a place called Cabbages and Condoms. We all thought this was hilarious, but then Mike gave us the reason for the name.
Birth control used to be taboo in Thailand, and was never talked about or used, but a Thai scholar decided that it needed to be talked about, so he went on a speaking campaign to try and make condom use widely accepted. Now the Cabbages and Condoms restaurants and rest stops are a huge advocate in promoting condom use. The reason for their name is that they are trying to make condoms as common as cabbages.
The drive to Chiang Mai was beautiful, as it is located in the rolling foothills of the Himalayas. As we continued on our way toward Chiang Mai, we saw this little car on the road. So cute!
We checked in to our hotel, which was once again beautiful, and this hotel was located right in the heart of Chiang Mai, and right in the center of the night market. Again, this was a Le Meridien property.
We then had dinner on our own in the night market of Chiang Mai. Our hotel is located right in the center of the night market. As we headed out into the night market to find some dinner, we noticed all of these beautiful women dressed up for something. We soon realized that they were men in drag, dressed up for a cabaret show.
We were looking for an authentic Thai meal for dinner, and boy did we find it. We have always wanted to try the whole fish, but have never found a place that we felt safe eating it at. Here in the night market, one of the stores had their own large aquariums were you could pick your fish and they would cook it however you wanted it. I told Steve, "I don't really want to meet it before I eat it", and I made him choose our fish. We chose a beautiful large tilapia (approximately 2 pounder), and they packed it in salt and then grilled it up for us. We then ordered a vegetable plate to go with it. It was a fabulous dinner! ~$12 US for everything!
We ordered a Chang beer to enjoy while we were waiting for our fish to be grilled because they said it would take about 40 minutes. We were soon joined by the Chang Girl, who just happened to be in this restaurant tonight and wanted a picture with me for some type of campaign they are doing. I was happy to have my picture taken with her, and in return we got a nice little bottle opener. She was gorgeous and it made me feel like a celebrity to have my picture with her.
After dinner we looked around the night market for a crepe stand. We weren't able to find one that had what we were looking for, so we settled for a rotee. It was really good, but it wasn't a crepe.
We really enjoyed our time at the night market and are excited to have some time to explore it a little more tomorrow night. Again, we are exhausted from the days many adventures. We poured our tied bodies into the very comfortable bed for a few hours of much needed sleep!
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