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| Northern Thailand, home of the Longnecks |
After we left Pai, we
went back to Chiangmai and stayed there for a few days, unsure what
we wanted to do next. We didn't know whether we should go to
Chiangrai or go straight to Laos because it was getting nearer and
nearer to the time our Vietnam visas would begin and we didn't want
to eat too much into our time there. In the end, we were so
indecisive, that we ended up wasting 2 days in Chiangmai doing
nothing because our hotel was so nice. We did venture out at one
stage to go to the mall, which was nice, but nothing compared to what
we'd seen in Bangkok. On the third day, we kicked ourselves into gear
and did a bout of sightseeing. We hired a tuk tuk driver for the day
to take us to all the places we felt we
should go. Actually,
there wasn't anything we really wanted to do, but we felt guilty for
doing nothing, so I decided we should go and see a hill tribe and a
temple. Lots of people go on treks in Chiangmai to see the hill
tribes, but we'd heard they weren't that good, and as we'd already
been on elephants, we didn't want to do that again. So rather than go
on a trek, we just took a tuk tuk to go and see a tribe, which I'd
read was going to be very touristy, and not a real tribe at all.
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| There were even signs pointing to where each tribe was |
In
fact, there is some controversy surrounding these tribes and
questions as to whether or not they are forced into dressing up just
for the tourists. Anyway, we went, and saw the long necks tribe, and
it was so staged – just like Lake Titicaca had been – we had to
pay £5 to go into a 'village' made up of different tribes, which
looked like they had just been dumped there and dressed up for the
tourists. Oh well, at least it got my need to see a tribe out of my
system.
After this, our driver
took us along a really windy country road that made me feel really
sick, especially because of the fumes coming out of the tuk tuk. We
went to the most famous temple in Chiangmai which has views over the
city. It was quite nice. Once again, once you've seen the temples in
Bangkok, this doesn't really stand out. It was nice though, but we
couldn't look round too long because a monk told Jemma off for
wearing shorts and we had to get out.
I felt like we had
finally accomplished something in Chiangmai after our day out in the
tuk tuk rather than just staying in the hotel all the time. We went
back to Chiangmai and could finally book our tickets out of there –
a night bus to Laos, via Chiangrai.
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