Shopping in Chiang Mai
Trip Start
Jun 12, 2009
1
25
Trip End
Jan 01, 2010
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Thursday, August 13, 2009
So the next 4 days were pretty much spent shopping with Nicole. She sort of adopted me as her model and sounding board for stuff and I'd give my opinion on the things I liked and didn't. Amazingly we both liked the same things. I ended up buying some stuff although I got it all at wholesale price thanks to Nicole! After shopping each day we'd have a late dinner and then we'd start on the beers!
In between shopping I managed to fit in a day trip to a few tribal villages just outside of Chiang Mai but the 900 baht I spent on the tour was a complete waste of money. I feel terribly guilty that I unknowingly contributed to what can only be termed as a tourist attraction. It's all just for show - there is nothing genuine about the ladies sitting with their neck coils waiting to make money from tourists coming to have a look. It felt like I was visiting a zoo. I would rather know that these traditional tribes exist, and accept that I will never see them, than pay to gawk at these people. Despite that they make a living from tourists, how can it possibly be doing them any good long term? Never again.
I decided that day that I would never do another tour like that again. The same must be said for any tourist attraction to do with animals. It's just wrong, plain and simple.
So.... Chiang Mai was an experience. I got to shop, meet some of the locals as well as alot of ex-pats who have married Thai women and now live in Thailand (here's a topic I just will not start on!) and see a hell of alot of sex tourists. By the end of the 4 days I was ready to head further north and try and find something less touristy with no sex tourists!! I felt there had to be more to Thailand than this so I booked a bus to Pai to do some more exploring.
