Day 1 in Chiang Mai

Written Tuesday May 20, 2008

I thought I’d take a few very quick notes on the first day in Chiang Mai.

· 12 hour overnight train from Bangkok, good, kind of neat to sleep on the train, but still long. Was up by 6, and the train was noisy. Thai countryside is amazingly beautiful, especially as you get into the mountains to the north

· Arrived in CM, met David Le Blanc, very cool young guy who has sort of been overseeing operations but whose contract is expiring soon and so is looking to be replaced by Sam, who was on the plane with me from Toronto

o Went for lunch/coffee, chatted about NEED as an organization, it was nice

· On a side note, Chiang Mai is awesome. Not nearly the hustle of Bangkok, but still very alive. Huge backpacker presence. Receiving LOTS of stares, starting to feel a tiny bit awkward sometimes (you’ll see what I mean in a minute)

· Went back to the hotel for a shower and a change of clothes, then picked up by two of the other guys working at NEED and (I’m TERRIBLE with names I’m familiar with, and am likely going to be hopeless with Burmese and Thai names, but I am doing my best…the only name I remember from today is “Dau” (Pronounced ‘duh’)

· Went to the NEED head office and met some of the students working there (some of them have been trapped in Burma by the cyclone, and others have gone into Burma to do research and have been unable to be able to leave yet because the necessary bribes are still being arranged and hoops jumped through). Though shy, the students seem really nice and I look forward to meeting everyone else at the meeting tomorrow morning

· There just so happened to be a forum/rally at Chiang Mai University for Burmese Hurrican Relief, so we went to that after going to the office. It was really neat, there was a panel of speakers (some of it bilingual thai/English, some of it just thai)

o Incidentally, I also got my picture taken for the Chiang Mai Post, which should be coming out next Tuesday, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for that one...wasn’t expecting to make the newspapers my first day in town.
· After the rally, we went back to the hotel (Greg, Sam and I) and then headed to the mall to pick up cell phones. 32 dollars later I have a phone number! *email me and I'll tell you* I don’t think I have voice mail though. Or at least if I do, I need to know more Thai then I do to set it up. I can receive calls and text messages.

· After the mall we grabbed some food from a parking lot (a note about the food: IT IS CHEAP, DELICIOUS AND EVERYWHERE. I am going to come home fat and gross, but it will be worth the coronary bypass. And not all the food is bad for you. They sell fresh mango, guava and pineapple either whole or cut up all over the place, though I’m more cautious where I eat than most. I tend to stay away from the ones where you see piles of ingredients swarming with flies, no matter how delicious it may smell. Also, thus far I haven’t had any digestive problems, which is a plus.

· Pulled my back again this morning so I’m trying to rest it…it’s harvest season so there will definitely be some planting ahead

· After dinner we went to the night market, which is basically like a regular market but…at night…I feel like I didn’t need to explain that one.

· On the way we happened to pass through Chiang Mai’s red light district accidentally. If I had a nickel for every old white man I saw with a young thai girl, I’d be able to retire tomorrow. It was gross. Prostitution is illegal in Thailand, but so are a lot of other things…’massage parlors’ and bars that seemed to have copious numbers of waitresses none of which seemed to be waiting on tables lined the street. On top of this, there were all the women that simply stood on the curb, no, LINED the curb in mobs calling out to everyone who passed by. It was a eerie unsettling experience as I was shouted at from both sides while I conjured up images of every STD I’d ever been taught about in school. While I do respect the right of any woman to choose how she makes a living, I was unprepared for the aggressiveness with which they went about their business. I think we were all a little shaken by the experience and I doubt we will be passing through that part of town again, after dark or otherwise. On our way back from the market, Greg suggested we take a different route, and we did.

· We also saw this guy walking a baby elephant down the street. I think it had been working all day up in the foothills because it had empty cloth carrying sacks on either side of it. I think it was just the coolness with which the dude was walking this elephant down the side of the street that got to me though. Truly we are in Thailand.

· Anyway, it was fun, I bought some shorts. I actually ended up feeling really terrible about it because everyone says you should bargain at the markets, so when the lady gave me a price of 290 baht, I skillfully countered with 150. She came back with 250 and the game was on. I came back with 175 and she came down to 220. I said 180 was as high as I was going and she said 215 was already the best deal in town. I said 215 was too much and made to turn away, when she said “sir, please, 200” in a voice that didn’t really seem like she wanted to play anymore and more like she needed me to buy the shorts. She was holding a baby in one arm and (sensing it’s mother’s distress?) it had begun to cry. I stopped. I wondered if maybe I was the only person who had stopped by her cart that evening. I wondered if this woman had a day job from which she’d returned home this evening, exhausted, only to set up her cart in the night market hoping to make some extra cash on the side. I wondered how many other children she had at home. I wonder what she’s going to spend my 200 baht on…Food? School Uniforms? More shorts to keep her shop open and continue to supplement what would likely be considered a pitiably meager income by Canadian standards? Suddenly 200 baht (roughly $6.45 Canadian) didn’t seem like an honest bargain anymore. It seemed criminally low. I paid the money and left with my shorts, but without the elation one might expect to feel after their first successful bargaining experience. As I go to bed tonight I don’t expect to find sleep quickly. I have a lot to think about.