The Drive, the Karens, and Chiang Mai
Trip Start
Jan 13, 2006
1
7
Trip End
Jan 29, 2006
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Chiang Mai, Thailand
Sunday, January 22, 2006
After an hour or two of driving, we stop in the small mountain town of Khun Yuam for lunch. There is one inn/restaurant in town (Ban Farang), and their menu is so cheap and delicious-looking that we all order several items along with a few glasses of iced hill tribe coffee that is sweetened with condensed milk. Yum!
Route 1263 through the heart of hill tribe country has been paved within the past couple of years, so it's a fun adventure driving along this scenic road for most of the afternoon. After an hour or two, we find a village that our trusty Budget Rent-a-Car map/guide tells us is a Karen tribe village... so of course we have to stop so we can photograph Karen in her native surroundings. :-) For better or worse, the village is pretty dead... we actually pass it by accident and then have to do a 9-point turn in the road to go back and stop. We park by an abandoned market stall and proceed on foot through the village. Karen looks positively mortified at every turn by our intrusion on these peoples' lives, but the few villagers who are around seem happy enough to see us, and even more surprisingly, they seem happy enough to be photographed. After a quick spin through "town," and a pee break by the river (me & Ben), we hike up to the car and move on.
The road loops us back by Doi Inthanon National Park, but it is too late to stop, so we rejoin the main highway to Chiang Mai. Along the way we listen to a random episode of "This American Life" that Ben has on his iPod... it simultaneously seems surreal and applicable to the situation. The drive into the city is mildy stressful to me, only because I'm suddenly surrounded by lots of other cars again for the first time in days. Somehow I make it into the city, though, and we steer ourselves alongside the moat to the north side of town and grab the last available room at the Novotel.
We're eager to check out the Chiang Mai Night Market, which I missed on my last trip, so we hit the pavement almost as soon as we check in. Dinner be damned! On the way down to the street we pass a truly bizarre wedding/party on floor 2 that seems to involve lots of "ladyboys." Wacky! The walk to the market is rather long, and somewhat sketchy, depending on who you ask. We walk by a few guys who seem either passed-out or dead, and it is dark in spots, but I never feel threatened, and to her credit, neither does Karen. In fact, she remarks half-way through our stroll that Chiang Mai is one of her favorite cities anywhere (I agree)! When we get close to the market we stop at a 7-11 (they're everywhere!) for some Sang Som and sodas, and after downing those, we finally hit the grand shopping center of Chiang Mai.
We all feel a little overwhelmed... there are soooo many stalls, selling soooo many things! Everything from clothes to art to knick-knacks to bootleg media. Ben immediately buys fake zip-off Diesel pants, and I buy some souvenir Starbucks mugs for some coworkers (I know, how corporate have I become?!), while Karen picks up some jewelry for friends. There are so many tourists around that it is almost hard to concentrate on the consumer goods on offer. One cute American notices (and remarks on) Ben's Guster shirt, so Ben and I are both instantly obsessed, which leads to a fruitless chase through the (now-closing) market stalls... all the while Karen and I are chomping down on some delicious lychees that I bought from a hill tribe woman.
Eventually at 11pm we end up back in the center of Chiang Mai for a (belated) dinner at a touristy place by the main gate. Yay for chicken cordon bleu! There is a big table of Australians (some are HOT!) next to us, so Ben and I try to sneak photos of them while they're not looking (we have limited success). After food we jump in a tuk-tuk back to the Novotel; we're supposed to have the car back to the airport by 8, so we set the alarm for 7. Ooops...
