Thailand--Finally!

We arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand, after an early morning rise to catch a flight to Bangkok from the Hong Kong airport. From Bangkok, we caught a short flight to Chiang Mai, arriving in 90 degree heat in mid-afternoon. Having not researched temperatures in Thailand for October and November, I was surprised to say the least. I had expected heat, but not quite so much of it.

I changed currencies to Thai Baht, which was trading at 27 baht to 1 USD. This makes money all the more confusing, as I had been getting accustomed to 7 yuan or Hong Kong dollars for 1 USD. Now, with a wallet full of 100, 500, and 1000 baht, it seems like huge amounts of money are flying out of my bank account, and I struggle to convert and keep perspective.

We got a cab from the airport, but neither the desk nor the driver seemed to have ever heard of our hostel, Rachamankha Flora House, so they had to call for directions. That kind of response always fills me with dread. I had made a booking for a hostel a few days ago, and all the highest rated ones with cheaper prices were either filled or not available for the five days I wanted. I looked at hotels, but because I’ve come to love hostels, I decided to take a wider look and consider those that didn’t have enough reviews to qualify for a favorite rating on hostel world. Rachamankha Flora House came to my attention with beautiful room pictures, a location within the Old Town, a 98% rating from 2 reviews, and a 100% clean rating. The price was higher than what I wanted to spend--about $40 a night--but still fairly reasonable.

As soon as the driver pulled up, we were effusively greeted, and some young people swarmed over our luggage and carried it upstairs--later I saw that we were on the fourth floor and was very grateful indeed. The owner, an older Thai woman, sat us down in the courtyard and introduced us to their tour desk operator/guide, Mr. Korn, who promptly started asking us what we wanted to do while we were in Chiang Mai. I had vague ideas, but nothing concrete, so we talked about different options, and he gave me a lot of brochures and suggestions. The set-up is a bit of a Catch-22: having your activities set up is incredibly easy and helpful, but on the other hand, if we set up all of our days like this, we could literally not see Chiang Mai at all, at least on our own. Public transportation here seems different from China…less friendly for walking…and rather than big obvious buses or subways, the mode of travel seems to be lots of small options…trucks with benches in the back or other independent taxis.
After the big tour spiel, we wandered up to our room. The owner seemed to have disappeared, so we followed the numbers up to the fourth floor. The house itself is beautiful. Everything seems newly renovated, solidly built, beautifully decorated, and very very clean. There are marble hallways, teak stairs, and dark wood accents everywhere. We ended up with a King-sized bed instead of two singles, but that wasn’t really a problem. The bathroom is also lovely and we have a large shower area…no more showering next to the toilet!

A little while later, I wandered down to the reception area to pay for our room. The woman told me pay when we checked out, and I met her husband, a small older man, who reminds me of a Thai version of the actor Jim Broadbent. She then mentioned that another couple were going to dinner and a show at the Thailand Cultural Center. I had never heard of it, but we had no plans for dinner and it was only about $10 each, so I told them we would go.

At 7 pm, we went down to wait for the driver and met Jenny and John, a couple from Australia, who were our dinner companions. They were in Thailand for a medical vacation--John was getting several crowns made at substantially lower prices than in Australia (or the U.S.). Apparently they could have had the implants done as well, but he had had them done in Australia before they had found out about Thai dentistry. They were very impressed with their experience.

The driver arrived and we piled into his car for the short ride to the cultural center. We had to remove our shoes and were seated on the ground with a long triangular pillow at our backs. Dinner was a nice mixture of several dishes: fried bananas, chicken curry, sweet fried noodles, fried chicken, vegetables, sticky rice, and some kind of chili tomato dish.

After dinner, the performances started with six to eight young girls dancing in traditional Thai style, changing costumes with every dance. Interspersed with the girls, we saw Thai children dancing in and out of rhythmically slapping poles, and a sword-martial arts performance by a young man. I’d like to say I liked the program, but it was only mediocre at best. The night got a little longer when we were told to move to a different building for the Hill Tribe dances. The performers who did these dances often looked like they’d been forced to dance, which made it uncomfortable to watch. Interestingly, the men seemed to have a better time performing than the women.

Later, when talking to Jenny, she brought up the very things I’d been thinking. We’d had a long discussion during dinner about Hill Tribe treks. It’s big business in Chiang Mai to take a tour to see different villages and ethnic peoples. I’d already decided that it would make me uncomfortable to go…I felt like the people were being treated like exhibits in a zoo for tourists to gawk at. I also didn’t really think it was helping the people, nor was it enriching any kind of cultural understanding in the tourists.

It’s a tricky subject…as many things here seem to be.