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Friday, 7/30
Wake-up call 6:30 am, leave 8:00 am.
Our Lampang River Lodge room -- true to form, pictures were
taken AFTER we'd already slept in the room!
The room was really nice, although not luxurious. The view was beautiful, but we
couldn't really sit out on the deck because of the mosquitoes -- maybe if we had
been there during the day... There was a sign asking that shoes not
be worn on the wood floor, so we complied. Unfortunately, there was a nail head
that wasn't quite level with the floor, so we'd hurt our foot every time we
stepped on it. We tried to solve the problem by putting a piece of bubble wrap
on top of it to remind us not to step there, but instead all that happened is
that we were constantly popping the bubble wrap when we stepped on it. It got to
be pretty funny, although I'm not sure if LaMar and Sheila next door felt the same.
Map of the Lampang River Lodge grounds.
Our room was the last one on the right in the left section, closest to the walkway leading to the bridge over the "river".
This was where we got our massages.
At breakfast, Amy spoke to a couple at a table next to us. I was a little
surprised because Amy doesn't usually spontaneously initiate a conversation with
strangers, but she thought they spoke Spanish, so she spoke to them in Spanish.
It turned out that they were Italian and the man didn't understand her, but the
woman did.
JUNGLE MARKET
According to our original itinerary, we were supposed to visit Ko Kah temple (another Emerald Buddha)
and Wat Chedi Sao next. Instead, because we had agreed to change the itinerary,
we stopped at a jungle market. I failed
in my note keeping here because I didn't get the name of the market NOR take a
picture of the market sign, so I have no idea exactly where we were.
The market was pretty interesting. Wat told us that we could take pictures, but
not to linger as the vendors would get upset because we would be obstructing
their business. Besides cooked food, there were fruits, vegetables, packaged
food, candies and snacks, cosmetics, clothing, toys and just about anything else
you could think of seeing.
A
variety of fried insects.
Fried crickets
No,
that's not a dog's head -- it's a pig.
And those are chicken feet. . .
Amy and I bought a couple of bags of peanut brittle and
sesame brittle. While looking at the clothes, Amy had her first entire
conversation in Thai. Granted, it was very short and elementary, but an entire
conversation all the same.
Amy:
"Nii thaw ray kha" (How much is this?)
Vendor: "Ha sib
baht kha" (50 Baht.)
Amy:
"Khob khun kha" (Thank you.)
The next two pictures are out-of-order in the sequence of actual events, but it
makes more sense to include them here.
On the bus, Wat brought out the bag of deep-fried crickets he had bought for us
to try. He first ate a couple himself to show us and then asked who would like
to try one. I had decided that I would try everything and anything on this trip,
so I volunteered. I wasn't the first and someone else commented that they
thought it tasted like smoked oysters. Wat pulled off the wings (don't eat the
wings) and fed me the cricket. I told Amy to take a picture, but
she thought I was going to turn and look at her, so she missed taking the shot.
Of course, I had to eat another to be able to get a picture (and prove that I'd
really eaten a cricket!!).
Amy's picture:
Hey! I thought Amy told me that she didn't get the first picture!!
This was the first cricket I ate. I guess it was hard to tell what it was -- maybe
that's what Amy meant.
I'm sure she wasn't just saying that she didn't get the shot so I'd have to eat
another!
Interesting note: The highest mountain in Thailand is in Chiang Mai. It's part of the Himalayan range.
Because Amy had gotten motion sickness the day before, we pulled out the Sea
Band acupressure bracelets from the suitcase for her to use. They worked
great!! As long as she had the bands on for the rest of the trip, she never felt
sick. Whew!
ELEPHANT HOSPITAL
Our next stop was the elephant hospital.
Soraida Salwala founded the charity, Friends of the Asian Elephant, which funds
the hospital. When she was 8-years old, she saw an injured elephant. She went
into the family jewelry business as an adult, but left the business at age 35 to
create the hospital. The first elephant to be treated was a female elephant,
Motala, who stepped on a land mine at the Thai/Burmese border. She's almost
completely healed now and is being prepped for an artificial limb.
We saw several injured elephants, most with similar injuries to Motola's.
Duang Duean (22 yrs) and Tawan (7 mos)
There
were bios and pictures of some of the injured elephants.
There was also a gift shop where we bought t-shirts with the proceeds donated to
the hospital.
Interesting note: Chiang Mai is the third capital of the North and the
second biggest city in Thailand. Chiang Rai was the second capital.
As we continued northwards I noticed that there seemed to be a big problem with littering in Thailand. On the mountain road on the way to Lampang, there was a LOT of litter.
Our lunch today was very good. There was pad thai, northern
noodle soup, spicy som tam, and chicken in pandahus (sp?) leaves. Everything was
really flavorful, but I wondered what was with the vegetable tempura everywhere
we ate.
We finally arrived in Chiang Mai and began our series of visits to various handicraft factories and showrooms. We stopped at Celedon of Siam and to see sterling silver (don't know the name).
While we were at the silver showroom, John, once again, proved himself to be the "ugly American". Apparently John had seen something on display that he wanted to purchase, but they didn't have any in stock. I overheard him lecturing the employees that they shouldn't have something on display if they don't have it in stock. He told them that it was bad business practice and asked "were they familiar with that concept". I happened to walk out of the store at the same time as him and he told me what had happened. I told him that the same thing happens everywhere, even in the US. He said that he would yell at them also, but that "these people are idiots". That was the last time I spoke to him for the rest of the trip.
Our next stop was Shinawatra Thai Silk.
Yellow cocoons - Thailand
White cocoons - Japan & China
Put the cocoons in boiling water. Threads from many cocoons form one very strong
thread.
Fabric loom
We learned that real silk doesn't burn. It smells like burning hair while
artificial silk smells like burning plastic. Somehow I don't think vendors will
let us try to burn a piece of the product to test whether it's real silk or not.
Amy was really impressed with their merchandising. She kept commenting about how
they had the merchandise displayed and the benefit of displaying the items in
that fashion. We didn't buy any gifts here as everything, although of good
quality, was more than we wanted to spend. I did end up buying Amy a pink silk
purse (very unusual design) as her Thailand souvenir.
Our next stop was a gem factory. I looked at rings and found a setting I really liked (actually, I found a few rings I really liked). I really liked the star sapphire since it was from Thailand, but it was much more than I would even consider spending for something that was such a frivolous purchase. They brought me rings with several different stones in the same setting and I debated on whether I liked the jade one well enough to buy it. I liked that jade is good luck, but I wasn't sure I liked the particular piece of jade in the setting (almost looked plastic). The salespeople were very persistent, but I finally decided not to buy anything. Amy and I went to look for others and to get our free drink from the bar. We sat for a little while and then decided to go back to the bus since Amy was tired and wanted to take a nap. As we headed out, I stopped to talk with other people in our group and find out what they had purchased. A saleswoman approached me again and asked if I would be interested in seeing the ring I had look at before in 14K rather than the 18K. I said sure and she proceeded to show me other styles that were much less attractive than the setting I liked. After awhile, they brought back the same jade ring again and I ended up buying it. I decided that it would be my one big Thailand souvenir purchase. They had to resize the ring, so they said they would deliver it to me that evening at the hotel.
Next we went to a Home Arts Center. The group went in to
hear a speaker talk about rugs, but Amy and I didn't have much time before we
had to get to the hotel to be picked up for our cooking class, so Wat told
the people there that we were in a hurry and would just quickly look around. We
ended up each buying a pashmina - seemed kinda expensive (for Thailand) to me,
but Amy said that it was a good deal and she *is* the price professional. We
rushed through the rest of the displays in different areas and paid for our
purchase. Wat had arranged for the shop to drive us to our hotel where we would
be picked up for our cooking class.
COOKING CLASS
After Yui and her husband dropped us off, I was so tired that I wasn't really in the mood to shop, so I told Amy that we would just look that night to get an idea of what was available to be prepared to shop the next night.
We came across a woman selling roti and, after seeing the condensed milk, thought that it was one of the things Craig had told me to try. We got one with banana that was more like a crepe with bananas inside and condensed milk on top, so we weren't 100% sure it was the same thing since it wasn't exactly what Craig had described, but it was still really yummy.
We came across an internet cafe, so we stopped so I could
check my email (1 Bht/1 minute, 10 Bht minimum). We got back to the hotel and
washed out a few things in the sink since we had missed the laundry pick-up. The
hotel had robes and slippers, so we both put them on and thought we looked
pretty cute. :-)
CHIANGMAI PLAZA HOTEL (Chiangmai)
92 Sridonchai Rd
Muang, 50100
(011) 6653-270036, Fax: (011) 6653-272230
. . . . 7/31/04