map of Thailand

(written September 30) I’ve been in Thailand for one week now.  I still have a hole in my heart for Bali and am not finding much to fill it thus far in “the Land of Smiles.”  I appreciated the irony of the grimacing, unsmiling immigration officials sitting immediately underneath the sign, “Welcome to the Land of Smiles” when I landed in Bangkok, hoping that wasn’t indicative of the types of smiles for which the land was famous. 

To date, I’ve spent all my time in Chiang Mai, aka “the Rose of the North,” the city I had anticipated would be my “Thai home base.”  Travel is about learning and one thing I learned about myself from my time in Bali is that I prefer spending most of my travel time in smaller locales that are off the beaten path.  The fewer tourists that make their way there, the better as far as I’m concerned. The locals in such places are more open to a genuine interaction which I find pleasing.  I also like watching the chickens, pigs and other animals that are more prevalent in rural areas.

The litmus test I’ve found myself using recently is my hometown of Paducah, Kentucky.  If it’s larger than “little ol’ Paducah,” then it’s too big.  So Chiang Mai, with its international airport and 15 story buildings, clearly didn’t fit the bill. As I write, I’m on a (very bouncy) bus on my way to Chiang Rai, the center of the Golden Triangle border region of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar (Burma).  Chiang Rai, populaton 62,000, may also be bigger than what I’m looking for.  It does have an airport afterall.  But then again, so does Paducah. I hear that the motorbiking around Chiang Rai is fabulous so for that reason alone I’m willing to give it a shot.

food market in Chiang Mai

Despite Chiang Mai not being the perfect fit I had anticipated, I still found touches of the interesting there. Two nights in a row, on my motorbike drive to my hotel at 1:00 am, I saw a man walking his elephant home … right down the main street in downtown Chiang Mai!  I’ve enjoyed the different sights of tuk-tuks (three-wheeled motorized taxis) and songthaew (modified pick up trucks with two benches in the back which are less expensive than taxis but aren’t quite public buses).  

tuk tuk

The occasional loudspeaker-equipped pickup truck drives through the city center blaring what I assume is an advert for either a political candidate or a business.  This morning I saw a similarly equipped pickup truck loaded up in back with a few monks and a shrine. People were approaching the back of the truck in droves receiving blessings from the monks who seemed to be reciting prayers over the loudspeaker.  Who knew that the Buddhists were into evangelization?

Shopping in Chiang Mai beats that in Bali hands down. The Night Bazaar, which is open until about midnight each night, has all kinds of fantastic wares that make me want to buy a house just so I can decorate it with these beautiful silks, woodenwares and interesting lights.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a house at the moment and my backpack is already bulging at the seems.  I had a blast though grazing through the “food court” portion of the Sunday Market, marveling at all the interesting new sights and smells. Although I didn’t mind passing on the fried crickets and paper thin fried squid-on-a-stick, I regretted that I didn’t have more room in my tummy for many other things.  

fried crickets and shrimp

I’ve had some interesting experiences in and around Chiang Mai.  I took a cooking class at the famous Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School one day.  The next day, I went with a British friend I met in the cooking class up to Wat Doi Suthep, the most important temple in Chiang Mai that sits at the top of a large hill.  I felt like we were playing Laurel and Hardy’s “Who’s on First” in planning the trip.  I would say something about the wat and Steve would say “What?” “The Wat.” I answered. “What?” he said in all seriousness, not realizing that the Thai word for temple is wat. 

On another day, I spent an hour playing with tigers.  A very new and touristy operation called Tiger Kingdom has set up shop about 15 km north of Chiang Mai. They have three groups of tigers, 2 months, 5 months and 11 months, that customers can get in a cage and play with for 20 minutes each at the amazingly low cost of 500 Baht per age group.  One can play with all three age groups for 1,000 Baht which is about $30.  A few months ago, I went swimming with dolphins and sea lions in Islamorada, Florida for 30 minutes and paid $250!

me with an 11 month old tiger

Pushing my monkey bite experience to the back of my mind, I hurried up to Tiger Kingdom to add “roughousing with tigers” to my list of Southeast Asian experiences.  First I played with the 5 month old “babies” … or attempted to.  There were four of them in the cage. One greeted me exuberantly when I entered, bounding up to me and smacking me playfully on the ankle with his softball-sized paw before running off to jump in the concrete pond (a real concrete pond; not the kind that Ellie and Jethro had).  A five month old tiger is about the size of a medium dog.  I would guess they weighed about 50-60 pounds.  Luckily, he kept his claws retracted while extending the invitation to play. Other than occasionally playing tug of war with a palm branch though, that was the extent of my actual play with this age group.  The four tigers cubs were so engrossed in playing with each other that I was content to just stand nearby and watch.  

me with a 2 month old tiger

Next, I played with the two month old cubs which TIger Kingdom called “newborns.”  They were the size of small dogs, maybe weighing about 30 pounds.  I had obviously caught them at naptime as four of the five of them just snoozed in the corner of the room.  I enticed the fifth one to play though with the cardboard core from a roll of toilet paper.  God, I love an easy tiger.

It was inevitable, of course, that I would be bitten.  Tigers bite when playing just like domesticated cats and dogs do.  Thankfully, the bites came from the little guys and, like playful dogs and cats, they weren’t going for blood; just a playful nip.  I have to admit though that “playful nip” wasn’t what came to mind when it happened though.  “Ouch that hurt!” was what I said … amazing how knowing you’re on video can temper what you really want to say.  They didn’t break the skin, but I did end up with bruises the next day … bruises I loved to show off.  Afterall, how often can you answer “tiger bite” when someone asks you how you picked up a bruise?  The baby play bites also gave me perspective on what a big tiger “play” bite would be feel like and even more insight into what a big tiger “I’m going to eat you” bite would feel like.  Some experiences I’m content to imagine.

me with a 5 month old tiger

After my time was up with the babies, I moved on to the big boys.  They were … well … tiger size.  Remembering how strong the 5 month old paw swat and the 2 month old play bites were, I was not disappointed in the least to find the big beasts snoozing and almost completely oblivious to my petting.  I rubbed big tiger backs and tummies and even used them as pillows (at the encouragement of the tiger’s supervisor) and, for the most part, drew no more interest than a stretch and a yawn.  The big guys were actually pretty boring … but I didn’t mind it that way.  The biggest one, Gil, sat up long enough to give me a good photo of his super large head in the foreground and little me hanging out by his rump.  

From my visit with the tigers, I had another discovery … I’m allergic to tigers. I didn’t think about it ahead of time, but it didn’t surprise me because I’m allergic to domestic house cats too … but that doesn’t stop me from playing mama to 3 and loving on all the others I can.  I sneezed most of the way home on my motorbike (tough to drive a bike when you’re sneezing!) and struggled every bit of the way not to rub my itching eyes as I knew they would puff up and turn bright red.  Hooray for antihisitimine!

During a little break from my allergy fits, I pulled over to the side of the road to admire an impressive array of unusually shaped knives that a woman was selling.  “Can I take a photo?” I asked her.  “Why do you want a picture?” she retorted. (Oh how I miss the Balinese how would often ASK me to take their pictures and thank me for doing so!)  “Because we don’t have knives like this in my country so it’s interesting to me,” I told her sincerely.  She shocked me with her reply: “Your country is stupid!”

an interesting array of knives

Having endured countless negative comments during this trip about my country and my countrymen, her words stung … until I realized that she had absolutely no idea where I was from.  She must have realized this at the same time because she asked, “Where are you from?” “Switzerland,” I answered without missing a beat.  They’re overdue for some bashing. 

To see a video of the Thai food stalls, click here.

I’m currently working on a video of me with the tigers but have run into a software issue with my laptop. Stay tuned…