Thailand and Beyond!

Whew! After a whirlwind week, I just put my parents on a train to the airport, where they will embark on the last leg of their Tour de World by catching a plane to Hong Kong. They have now officially been out of the United States for over a month, and still have another week to go. I hope I have that level of energy at their age... which is... ahem... 45? 35? I mean, they must have been... ahem... practically teenagers when they had me... hmm... never mind.

So back to Thailand. I'm going to give you the abbreviated version, which will consist mainly of the highlights of the trip (THAI FOOT MASSAGES!!!), since who really wants to spend an hour reading a minute-by-minute account of a trip that consisted mainly of--you guessed it--many Thai foot massages.

I jest... but not really. Upon arriving in the fair city of Chiang Mai, I was promptly introduced to the inexpensive pleasures of the traditional Thai foot massage. In fact, it was so good and so cheap, that I vowed to get a foot massage every day. On my fifth day, I realized that the foot was not made to be pampered so vehemently, and that, in fact, I was developing bruises and blisters from being rubbed and prodded so often. So I skipped Monday. But I'll be a chicken's mother if I didn't get one last foot massage, bruises or no bruises, on Tuesday before my flight!

Riding in the sontag to the Thai foot massage salon on my first day in Chiang Mai

Beyond the Thai foot massage, what did I spend my time doing? Well, my parents and I visited a Thai silk factory, where we got to see the whole silk production process... and I mean the whole process, all the way from conception (literally). I'll include a story board describing the process:

Mating moths... slightly pornographic.

Nine months later (not really). Silkworms eating leaves to gain strength for their cocoon spinning.

Silkworms spin cocoons, upon which the financiers of this operation put into sunlight to kill the poor silkworms (where's PETA when you need it?)

Thai silk matron boiling the cocoons. She has the thread (silk) of the shells attached to a spool, which she unravels while the silk is boiling. Each cocoon contains 50 meters of silk.

My parents and I also took an all-day excursion to the Golden Triangle-- the border where Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar (formerly Burma) meet. It's called the Golden Triangle because of the opium trading that took place in the no-mans-land between these borders, and gold was the only accepted currency.

Me holding opium flowers

We took a boat ride across the border to Laos, where we were introduced to the Laotian snake whisky (and armadillo whiskey, and scorpion whiskey) that they produce. It was... interesting. But when in Rome, one tries the Roman water, right? Eww.

Laotian snake whiskey

Me being the brave sport and trying the Laotian snake whiskey

The THAI-Tanic (get it? get it?) that took us from Thailand to Laos to Myanmar

We also went to the border of Myanmar, but didn't cross because they charged money to get in. As if.

On the way back to Chiang Mai, we stopped at the Karen Longneck tribe. I'm sure many of you have seen pictures of these women in National Geographic; any Karen woman who is born on a Wednesday of the full moon has to put rings around her neck to lengthen the neck and shoulders. They start applying the rings at the age of five, and keep going until they get 25 or 26 rings. And the rings are HEAVY! (I know because they had display rings to try on... it was only half the size of the full-grown women's rings and I was dying!)

I must say, I felt like an uber-tourist taking pictures of these women, who are made by the tribe to pose for tourists like me who just want a good picture (although I bought one of their home-made shawls, which I know helps them out). You could see some resentment in their faces at having to sit there like lawn ornaments. But, of course, I still took the picture. All in the name of blogging, of course...

Karen Longneck woman and her little girl, also with rings on her neck

A Longneck woman and her six-month-old little girl who will begin getting the rings when she turns five.

The next day we went to ride elephants! Since we have friends in Chiang Mai, we knew where to find the good jungle rides (some tours try to take you around a parking lot, which is not Indiana Jones enough for my taste). First we watched the elephants perform in a show, which was AMAZING. These elephants are so well trained, it's unbelievable. They can kick a soccer ball, they can dance to music, they can even PAINT. I began to think, if elephants can be trained this well, we're really falling short of Darcy's potential...

Elephant painting a self-portrait with its trunk

What made the elephant ride even more authentic was the never-ending rain. You guessed it: rainy season began while we were in Thailand, and never let up. Of course, I trusted Mila the elephant not to slip in the muddy downhill jungle slope. Trusted her with my life. Yup, not a worry in the world. Turns out Mila wasn't the one I needed to be worried about. My dad's elephant's baby (or is it my elephant baby daddy?) took a certain shine to me when we reached our destination and became a little over-demonstrative in its exuberance, rubbing its muddy body up against me and almost pushing me down a very slippery slope. Lesson learned: even the littlest elephants are quite powerful.

My dad (the one in yellow) and his baby elephant that followed him everywhere

The elephant drive thru-- a tree-top "restaurant" for the elephants passing through. Of course we, the patrons, were funding the snack...

My mom and I riding Mila, the elephant

Me and little baby elephant

Me after little baby elephant decided he luved me

A couple of other highlights: mango and sticky rice and the night market, often enjoyed in conjunction with each other. Mango and sticky rice is a desert dish served with sweet rice, and is really really good. The night market is exactly what is sounds like.

Yum!

Alright, that about sums up my Thailand experience! It was amazing, and I will definitely be back with Will some day. But meanwhile, back in Melbourne, I really missed these guys…