Day 6 - Serial killer? massage & joss-stick incompetence

Ok i've skipped day5 due to technical difficulties with the last cafe internet computer i used. hopefully it'll come good in next few days and i can publish in retrospect.

Day 6 main attractions were the trip upto the famous temple of Doi Suthep on the mountain overlooking chiang mai, and the other was a visit to the women's correctional massage centre.


The ride upto the temple was on one of the red taxi trooper carriers, that have 2 rows of seats facing each other in a small paddy-wagon like compartment. Theres no door at the back, so u have to make sure u don't have any loose possessions in u'r pockets and hold on for dear life. The ride up the mountain was very windy, and combined with the taxi driver's 'finese' negotiating the bends, looking out the back of the taxi almost made me puke. After disembarking the taxi it's a short hike up a massive filght of stairs to reach the temple proper. I can't remembr the history behind it, but it's quite pretty. For 10 baht u can buy a 'prayer combo kit', including 3 joss-sticks, 2 candles and 1 flower. The flower and candles were new to me, so i just followed everyone else's lead. I've never been very confident with the whole buddhist prayer thing, only doing it sporadically when i tag along to a function at a temple. I was almost going to forgo it this time but decided i should do as the romans do, and show a little respect. It took me awhile to firmly decide to do it though since i'm always doing something unco like burning the wrong end of the joss-stick, or snuffing out the flame in the lamp that everyone else uses to light their joss-sticks. plus the fact i had candles and the flower to content with, all very stressful. I always think i'm gonna end up burning down a temple one day with my ineptness. Fortunately i managed to get it right this time, without burning anything else down or myself. Had to sit there for a good 15 minutes though, carefully observing how everyone was doing it. However something unique to this place is that they walk around the square base of the central structure, for whatever reason i don't know. I just sorta tagged along with a group of old ladies when they started doing their rounds. with the flower, unlit joss-sticks and candles in hand. u do your laps then do all the lighting later. some people also stopped at every or come of the 4 corners of the structure, again i don't know why. I don't even know if i was doing it right, i just followed their lead and hopefully they were doing it right too! I also stopped at every corner to raise the joss- sticks to my forehead and say a prayer, just to cover all my bases. I have no idea if what i was doing was right, or if i'm thinking of the right things when i'm saying prayers, so sometimes i worry if stuffing it up is even worse than not doing it at all, sorta like incuring the wrath of the gods. anyway, done and dusted and i still haven't been struck by lightning yet. only other interesting thing up there was some annoying guy with an obsession with all things fluro, getting into all my camera shots! damnit. i've attached a pic here to show u just how much he stuff up my shots.














The second major attraction that day was a visit to the women's correctional massage centre. Found out about this place in the lonely planet. Massage is just one activiity among others, such as cooking. Each program teaches the inmates the skills for these activities, and they then get to practice on the general public who pay a fee. This money goes back into the program and some goes towards the inmates for when they are released. The hope is that some inmates continue in their newfound profession, and it keeps them outta trouble and coming back to the slammer. The fees are much lower than those of proper massage parlour, but also the inmates are not as experienced. It's mostly tourist who visit there anyway, giving support to the program and for the novelty factor. I must say i had horrifying thoughts before visiting. What sort of inmate would i get? Do i get to choose my masseur based not on her certificate on a wall, but her criminal history printout? I'm not too thrilled about getting the one that was a serial killer. what if my face or something i say sets her off while she's rotating my neck? SNAP. Then again a serial killer would have nice firm hands, good for a masseuse :) I thought of removing all my valuables and leaving them all in hotel before visiting too. U might open u'r eyes at the end of the massage to find your watch, jewelry and even piercings adeptly lifted from u'r body. // well after all those worries, the reality wasn't that bad at all. I did get a bit worried at one point though when a german girl in the same room cried out in pain twice cuz her masseuse was caressing too hard LOL. My masseuse didn't cause me any pain, but she didn't press as hard as the more experienced one, so didn't really feel much of a benefit. Still though, that's to be expected. I got to have a good chat with 3 of the masseuses towards the end of my session since it was quiet. 2 of them spoke broken english too which made it possible. My masseuse "fan" was 29 yrs old while goy and ying were 27 and 25 respectively. fan and goy were in there for dealing drugs (amphetamines), in which they received prison sentences of 2 and 2.5 yrs respectively. I can't remember how many fan dealt, but goy told me it was only 20 tablets. Laws here in thailand are alot more strict on drugs. I don't think u'd be sent to jail for this same offence in australia if it was an intial offense. ying was there for 'snatching' valuables from a person or shoplifting? i don't know which one. she did tell me she got just over 5 yrs for it, and that she only had a few months left. apparently her now ex-boyfriend was the one who committed the crime (he got 7.5yrs), but she copped it too being an accomplice. again, pretty harsh law. Ironically Ying and her boyfriend studied Law before she was put in prision. *LOL* i had a good laugh about that when she told me, and told her that her and the boyfriend probably didn't study hard enough! I told her her ex-boyfriend was a ban-yah orn (remember what that means?), and she heartily agreed. the other 2 also only had a few months to go. ying wants to go back to studying law when she's out (i think it' cuz she thinks shes a terible masseuse!), while the other 2 wanted to continue massaging. When u look at these girls u'd never think they're criminals. Small and innocent looking, and very good natured too. After a good chat we sorta became instant buddies, and they asked if i'd come back the next day and smuggle in some contraband for them - p0rk dumplings and potato chips from 7-eleven. they told me they'd give me a free foot massage if i did the deed, so i told em i'd consider. at about 5pm one of the other girls came in to inform them they needed to close up and head back to the jail accross the road. The last pic here is of the prison guard on the bike escorting them across the road and through the front gates of the prison. It was such a surreal feeling, there we were all chatting like normal people and then they had to go back to a prison cell while i was free to do what i wanted. At least they seemed like upbeat and happy girls. maybe they've learned to cope, or the fact they're sentences were close to ending, or maybe it could be credited to the program empowering them. Either way i was happy i had the opportunity to visit and i highly recommend any of you to do so too if in chiang mai.

Day 5 - Patara elephant farm

There are a number of elephant parks where patrons can see the elephants perform tricks or can take a ride on one. This particular one was rated as the no. 1 attraction on tripadvisor and by the end of the day i had to agree it was a well deserved mantle. This place sets itself apart from the others by pairing you up with an elephant for the day and allowing you to take part in the daily routine of looking after and maintaining one. Of course you also get to ride your elephant but the clincher for this place is the close interaction you get to experience (though no spooning here!) and the strong education about elephant conservation. I know I know you must be thinking al's gone all david attenborough or Steve Irwin within the last 2 days but its just that this stuff is unique to the region. The owner of the park, Pat, is a super passionate guy towards his work and you get the impression he puts most of the money back into the maintenance and continuation of conservation programs. Luckily his english is also very good and the educational talks he gives us are well structured and informative.

I got paired with a 24 yr old female elephant named Sai-tong. (There was only one elephant with tusks, and thankfully i didn't get him! ) Before we even interacted with the elephants, Pat briefed us on how to form a strong bond with u'r elephant, and that first impressions are vital i.e approach with a basketful of food! we were also told to never approach them from the back as it may startle them (leading to being squished). The head minder, Ben paired us carefully with each elephant as each had it's own character. Ben only met us that morning so i'm guessing the elephants are basing impressions on our physical appearance or emitting vibes. The elephants are fed with small bananas, sugar cane and bunches of tamarind seeds. The elephants are continuously eating throughout the waking hours so we just stood there continuously hand feeding them until the baskets were empty, breaking up feeds with a pat on the trunk calling out Dee-dee (good boy/girl). It was pretty cool to see them picking up food that would fall on the ground with their trunks and shoveling it into their mouths! After this we performed the daily health check

1 - happy? Elephants will show happiness by flapping their ears and swinging their tail. All our elephants (11 in total) were in good spirits that day. I'm not sure what it would mean if they weren't. i'm guessing its cuz they're physically ill and not some sort of psychatric or social problem with the other elephants. Don't think they make 10g doses of prozac anyway!

2 - sleeping well? elephants will rotate their sleeping position from side to side throughout the night every few hours. If they're not rotating it's not a good sign of health. We check this by seeing if dirt is smuttered on the top and both sides of the elephant.

3 - Sweating properly? elephants sweat through their toenails so it's a simple process of swabbing your finger across their toes to see if its moist.

4 - digestion. and ah yes the invetible yuck factor. There must be at least 6 pieces of poop (they're shaped and sized like lawn balls). They look like moist and mulched up balls of grass so we also had to pull apart one chunk and make sure the strands weren't too long and that a trickle of moisture came out upon squeezing. I forgot to mention this but we each had a trainer with us and our elephant so they were helping us out with this part.

Health inspection was then followed by a dust off with branches and a bath in the creek. Once they were in there we had to use small wooden pails to cover our elephants and then scrub with a brush. This was bloody hard work since elephant skin is so rough and hairy not to mention the pail and brush are tiny compared to the area we had to cover.

the riding part came up next but before this we were shown the 3 different ways to mount the elephant.

The first one was mounting from the side. You tap on the elephants leg and they bend slightly while keeping the foot on the ground allowing you to use the elephant's heel and knee as foot holds. once your feet are in position the elephant then lifts the leg to help bring the rider up to their backs. so cool! the last 2 were mounting from the front. You tap on the trunk with both hands calling out tum yong and they either lower their trunks allowing you to use it as a ladder, or they lower their head to the ground allowing you to jump straight on. i wouldn't try the front mount technique on an elephant with tusks though!
once up on top there are 2 riding positions - legs bent (hands free) or legs straight down. however both proved to be equally straining on the thighs. There is no saddle for us to sit on, just a rope behind us with a loop to grasp when coming down inclines. although cheezy the 'traditional outfits' they provided us with also provided protection against the rough hairs on the elephant's back.

We were also told how to direct them
forward - bai (and tap both feet to the backs of elephants ears)
turn left - bai (only tap right ear)
turn right - bai (only tap left ear)
stop - how
don't do that!(for when they stop to eat along the trail) - yana.

however we were told not to use 'yana' too much as it can upset them and cause them to become unresponsive, much like a small child. we were encouraged to always throw in a 'deedee' (good boy/girl) esp after saying 'yana'. Unfortunately our minders were always there leading the elephants along so was a shame we didn't get to try to control them ourselves from the saddle. Perhaps there was a real danger of one going AWOL or freaking out at something and throwing us off.

So we rode to the nearby waterfall about a kilometer and a half away taking the long route up and down a hill. I must say with the extremely slow speed of the elephants and the occasional one stopping in protest of the climb we could've gotten there faster walking ourselves! They'd also stop to drop a poop and urinate and when they urinate it's like pouring out water from a bucket over 15 seconds! Once we got to the waterfall we disembarked for lunch. Disembarking is much easier since they just bring you upto an elevated piece of ground for u to jump straight across onto. After lunch we had a swim with our elephant which is basically sitting on it's back while it immerses itself into the water and rolls around. This second part was a bit dangerous since there was a real chance of your leg getting pinned between the elephant and the ground! We finished the day by returning to the camp to check out the baby twin elephants and then another shorter ride along the creek to the endpoint. In all, although it was physically tiring and strenouus it was an amazing experience interacting with these beautiful and intelligent creatures, and as a result i've developed a greater respect for elephants.

Day 4 - Tiger Kingdom, Long necked women, Pharmacies

Main attraction of the day was a visit to Tiger Kingdom, a small tiger park where the visitors can get up close to the creatures. You have various options for which age group of tiger you want to spend time with, ranging from babies (which are more expensive) to adults, as well as combo options where you can choose 2+ age groups and get a small discount. The park has come under criticism from some individuals and animal groups claiming the tigers are heavily drugged to make them safe for visitors to get up close. In response to this the park admin has plastered up several info sheets about tigers to strenuously reject these drugging claims. Among the facts they state tigers sleep 16 hrs a day and are only usually active at night. Tigers are more active at night as this is the best time for them to hunt prey since their nightvision is superior to most other animals. these tigers don't react to being petted and stroked by visitors as they have been domesticated all their lives and have become desensitized to this. These facts all made logical sense to me, so i didn't have any moral objection to the visit. I know the 16 hrs sleep thing is true cuz last time i went to dreamworld on the gold coast to see the tigers all i got to see was a bunch of them sleeping while the trainer announced to the crowd : "tigers sleep 16 hrs a day". exciting show. Anyway i ended up choosing the double combo, 4 month olds and adults. you can also pay an extra $12 to have a photographer come in and take pics for you, which i also purchased. if you ever do go there i recommend the photographer since he gets u into various "positions" with the tiger and knows how to get them tigers to co-operate and distract. The 4mths old were alot more fun and interactive, but i think i enjoyed it more cuz i wasn't stressing so much about losing a limb or head. thankfully their claws have also been trimmed (or maybe haven't grown much yet?), so scratch marks were also nothing to worry about. good thing too since he did paw me in the face once.

The adults were much less interested in their visitors and seemed as though they just wanted to sleep. the trainers have to repeatedly agitate them with a bush on the end of a stick so that they show a bit of life. however i was more than happy for the tigers to remain sleepy and docile. who cares about the action shot. didn't really wanted to be within striking distance of an agitated and pissed-off tiger. I tried to take several precautions before entering the pen to minimize the chance of any freak attack. Things like changing into a darker coloured shirt at the hotel, and removing my mobile from my pocket in case someone happened to call me mid-stroke. Never choose that ring/sms tone that sounds like a bird chirp if visiting tiger park ok. While hesitantly petting the tigers I was silently praying that everything about the non-use of tranquilizers on the tigers was true. Didn't want the damn things wearing off while i was in there, or the trainer could've underdosed them that morning!

The photographer gets you into some great poses with the tigers, but these positions also put you in extremely vulnerable positions. When he asked me to "spoon the tiger" and lay with my head down on the tigers ass as a pillow i responded "are you kidding me?!" Anyway i took a leap of faith (and remembered i had organized travel insurance) and happy to report i still have my head, all limbs and appendages accounted for :)

After tiger kingdom it was short trip down the road to a kayan village, one of the hill tribes that are famed for their long necked women. There are various stories to explain the origin of this custom, but the one i've heard is that different hill tribes used to steal women from other tribes and that the rings and resulting elongation of the neck was to mark and identify the women to the kayan tribe. The rings don't pull the neck upwards, but rather push the shoulders down. Pretty extreme if you ask me, i think i would've gone with a tatoo! it costs about $8 to enter the village and all the women and girls sell handicrafts from stalls. I knew the goods were not handmade there in the village but was still happy to buy from them since i knew the money was probably well needed. btw, they start putting on the rings as young girls, and the lady in the pic doesn't have black teeth for lack of brushing but because of chewing some sort of food or tobacco

The taxi drivers in chiang mai all seem to run their own tours as well, so whenever you get into one they always ask you where you've been already and give the plug for their tour. It's a little annoying cuz some are pretty insistent and try to change your choice of attractions to ones that are part of their tour. and they'll have brocheres, pics and other paraphenalia ready to show you too. One of the more intersting drivers i had that day was a guy named "Mr Wood". He told me he was also a muay thai kickboxer and actually had a fight on the next night. he told me he was undefeated in the nth of thailand and was going down to the south to face their best man there. Hmm don't know i completely believed him since he was still here driving me around in a taxi. But his family also ran an elephant park for tourists and when i told him i was going to another more popular one he tried to change my mind. when i told him i'd already booked he seemed to become quite dejected and depressed. Geez what am i supposed to do?!

The only other thing of interest that day was a visit to a pharmacy. The one i visited was across the road from a girlie club (you can always pick them from the neon lights flashing out front, that and of course the scantily clad girls parading around). Appropriately the pharmacy's front counter cabinet was stocked with condoms, a range of contraception pills and the morning after pill. Azithromycin and other various antibiotics are also within plain sight in case of any mishaps. You don't need a prescription for these and many other drugs here in thailand. oh and opioid based products are not sold in retail pharmacy, only supplied through hospitals.