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 ro
ws 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 w
rong 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 min
utes 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 s
tuffing 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 o
n 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.
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