Old walled city built in 1296 and scenes of many kingly wars and takeovers, unfortunately only the corners, city gates and the moat still exist. But it is also the city of 300 temples ("Wat" in Thai), so stand by for the photos! I had a real problem editing down to this many as they are so beautiful inside and out, sorry.
Then have just got back from whitewater rafting (no photos as too hectic paddling and hanging on in the rapids) and rainforest trekking in the nearby Doi Inthanon Nat. Park (highest mt. in Thailand at 2,565m, sorry went a bit David Attenbrough there). 4 days with only a bathe in a forest river on Day 2 night, sleeping on bamboo platforms and cooking on camp fires, very boy scout. Came back filthy and sweaty - still hot in the North and humid in the forest, boy did we smell!
Visited some of the hill tribe villages, these are tribes who have migrated here over the centuries (and still are coming) from Burma and China and have been allowed to settle and farm but they retain their customs and dress. In this case they were from the Karen tribe (ex-Burma) who are still fighting an ethnic cleansing war inside Burma, so the refugees are still coming.
Part of the trek was also bamboo rafting, which is how these tribes ship their produce towards the markets in the towns and villages (although 4-WD tracks and motorbike trails are fast taking over). Rafting over mini-rapids whilst standing up with nothing to hold onto is quite something, and I was rear driver with a long pole to fend off the rocks and banks and keep the bloody thing straight-ish whilst our guide steered at the front!
Other thoughts:
- King's birthday: he is like a god here, even got his own shrines inside buddhist temples, slightly weird. He's 80 and I hate to think what they'll do when he dies.
- Chiang Mai sausage: they eat pig here in the North, and all of it. Intestines are deep fried, pork crackling of a sort is a daily snack as is lumps of deep-fried pork fat, and the sausages make Cumberland ones seem bland, I don't know what's in them but...
- Elections: they closed all the bars for an entire weekend, and will again this weekend, to stop politicians getting prospective voters drunk for free and bus them to the poll station! Just got to the mini-mart in time to get a slab of Singha and a bottle of Mekhong before the ban started. So what are the politicians doing this time? They are handing over cash to the poorer voters to buy their votes (allegedly), 3-500Baht per vote, about 7GBP!
Photos link at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Thailand_2007_Chapter_3
Right off to aging-hippydom (ex-opium growing area) in the mountains north west of here around Pai, then hopefully a 2-day whitewater rafting trek down the Mae Nam Pai river to Mae Hong Son, more forest trekking to other tribes (Burma / Thai border conflicts permitting).
Cheers!
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