Birthday in Thailand

Our stop in Laos, was merely to provide us the opportunity to step foot into Laos. Out boat docked against the fast current of the Mekong River and we walked into a shopping area that didn’t look much different than the many that we had been to in the prior weeks. They did take a few greater liberties with American labels and did have an assortment of Laos liquors to sample including lizard liquor, Snake wine, Turtle liquor, and Ell whiskey. All were large clear jars of a moonshine type liquid with the appropriate dead animal submerged. I tired the Lizard brew but found that it didn’t have the kick that I had expected. Thus far my indulgence has not caused ne any noticeable intestinal problems.

Today we traveled to Chiang Mai principal city of northern Thailand our first stop was at the White Temple.

Poupe asks if we want to stop at the White Temple in Po O Don Chai, built by Chalermchai Kositpipat a famous Thai artist. This temple is offensive to many Buddhist because of its variation from the standard Buddhist temple design. Kositpipat made a fortune selling his paintings internationally then decided that he wanted to honor his Buddhist faith and his home town by building a temple promoting the Buddhist belief of purity. It took 12 years to complete but is now adding more buildings for educational purposes as the community and the Buddhists are warming to his expression of his faith. Their change of heart may also have something to do with the fact that the White Temple has become a major tourist attraction for the otherwise driven past area. I personally found it to be a welcome change from the other temples that we have visited and I liked some of Kisitpiat’s paintings as well but found them a bit pricy.
The balance of the day was spent traveling on the bus, other then a short stop at a Jewelery factory and a Silk Factory. This is part of taking a tour. The tour company gets paid a commission on every body that they push through these doors. Some people buy but most just look and move on.

We were on the bus at 7:00 am this morning to travel fifty-five minutes north of Chang Mai to the Mae Tang Elephant Park . Pounpe recognized my birthday today by presenting me a card and a clay elephant, I had carried two cards from home from Ron and Avie and Albert and Sue, both were fun and warm thoughts form close friends back home. It turned into quite a birthday memory. The elephant is quite a smart and trainable animal, first a show of their strength and dancing then a elephant painting demonstration followed by an hour ride on the back or an elephant through the jungle. Every quarter mile a vendor was perched on a tree platform with bananas and sugar cane for the elephants to eat if the passengers on their backs would spring for 20 baht. How could I say not to feeding the elephant that was carrying us through the jungle and mud? After the elephant ride we were shown how they made paper out of elephant dung. Ginger is into paper but we thought that she might not want to work with elephant dung paper, she’s funny that way.

Next we walked across a ridge of bamboo lied into the river to board our raft to poll down the Mae Tang River. We sat on a bench eight inches above the water while men with long bamboo polls guided us down the river. The river is up now because of the rains and it was flowing fast making the polling job easy. We were told that in the dry season the pollers job requires them to drag the raft over los spots. The trip down the river, about an hour was full of beautiful scenery and relaxing tranquility.

We finished our morning with lunch at a restaurant that was full or live growing orchards. Their orchards grew as air plants hanging from a grid work allowing the root system dangle in the open air. We have the rest of the day for free time. Nita and I choose to go back to the hotel and take a three hour nap before grabbing a Tut-tut and going out to dinner at “The House” in old town with Michael and Marcia and Jerry and Jennifer. We had a five course meal including wine and tip for 2000 Baht or $60.00 in one of the top three restaurants in Chang Mai ; we shared stories, laughed a lot and had a speedy Tut-tut ride back to the hotel to end a memorable birthday.