Northern Thailand
Chiang Mai is the place to come if you want to learn how to cook, give good massages, make jewelry, rock-climb, practice yoga, meditation, or Thai boxing. If you aren't into that, you can shop your heart out at the daily night market and look in awe at all the amazing orchids at the flower market.
I took a cooking course with Kaohom, it was incredible...cooking in the open garden, making the yummiest Thai food I've ever eaten, and then getting to indulge in my creations at a beautifully set table in the garden. I also took a day to visit some local hill tribes which was interesting, but a bit sad because it was all a little too touristy. However, it was incredible to see the Padaung Tribe (Long Neck tribe) women - with bronze coils wrapped around their very very long necks and around their calves. I felt the weight of the coils and it was heavy! For an adult, the coils are usually between 3 and 5 kilograms...can you image that much weight around your neck day and night (they sleep with them too!). Most hill tribes practice animism, which means they believe in good and bad spirits which could be in the form of dead ancestors, plants, animals, and other objects. They often make sacrifices to both good and bad spirits (to the bad spirits so that they will be preoccupied and won't bother them). Very interesting and different ideas, incredible to see how some of these tribes have not evolved with the rest of society and are still living in ways their ancestors lived.
There was a Buddhist festival a few days ago where I took part in a ceremony at a temple. It was really interesting to be a part of it, monks chanting, everyone sitting on the ground with their feet pointing anyway but towards the monks (which would be a no-no), walking around the temple barefoot 3x with lit candles, and offering flowers and candles to Buddha. Finally I got to see what went on inside these amazingly decorated temples instead of just appreciating their appearance.
Off to Burma tomorrow with no access to email...i'll definitely be going through some serious internet-withdrawl. I'll be thinking of everyone at home in the cold and snow to cool me down when it's 35 - 40°C+.
I took a cooking course with Kaohom, it was incredible...cooking in the open garden, making the yummiest Thai food I've ever eaten, and then getting to indulge in my creations at a beautifully set table in the garden. I also took a day to visit some local hill tribes which was interesting, but a bit sad because it was all a little too touristy. However, it was incredible to see the Padaung Tribe (Long Neck tribe) women - with bronze coils wrapped around their very very long necks and around their calves. I felt the weight of the coils and it was heavy! For an adult, the coils are usually between 3 and 5 kilograms...can you image that much weight around your neck day and night (they sleep with them too!). Most hill tribes practice animism, which means they believe in good and bad spirits which could be in the form of dead ancestors, plants, animals, and other objects. They often make sacrifices to both good and bad spirits (to the bad spirits so that they will be preoccupied and won't bother them). Very interesting and different ideas, incredible to see how some of these tribes have not evolved with the rest of society and are still living in ways their ancestors lived.
There was a Buddhist festival a few days ago where I took part in a ceremony at a temple. It was really interesting to be a part of it, monks chanting, everyone sitting on the ground with their feet pointing anyway but towards the monks (which would be a no-no), walking around the temple barefoot 3x with lit candles, and offering flowers and candles to Buddha. Finally I got to see what went on inside these amazingly decorated temples instead of just appreciating their appearance.
Off to Burma tomorrow with no access to email...i'll definitely be going through some serious internet-withdrawl. I'll be thinking of everyone at home in the cold and snow to cool me down when it's 35 - 40°C+.
posted by Mary at 6:32 a.m.
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