Since leaving America August 2006, I have traveled to sixteen countries. A great deal has happened. This site is to share my thoughts, photos, music, writings, travel experiences, and developing political/social commentary with you. I hope you find it interesting and informative.
There are an abundance of “markets” in Chiang Mai. Usually their names correspond to their location, time frame when they’re held, who’s represented, what specialty goods are available. The night market is at night. The weekend market is on the weekend. The main street market is on the main street. A craft market features crafts by local artists.
When Masumi and I visited Chiang Mai, we drove to the outskirts of town to see a charming affair called The Coconut Market. Since I love coconut cookies, coconut shakes, coconut milk (slurped right from the coconut shell), I was anticipating a coconut paradise. Only problem was that the coconuts were still in the trees and I didn’t have a ladder.
But overall, it was a rather pleasant experience, offering a friendly, relaxed shopping excursion.
We wandered, we explored, we talked, we smiled. Everyone accepts Visa and Mastercard.
Thailand is a very laid-back country, with laid-back people. It’s fairly safe everywhere, especially compared to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where petty crime is a constant threat. Things are more intense in the south, the cities bustling, the islands hopping with full moon parties and walk-on-the-wild-side tourists.
Masumi and I are fascinated by elephants. Around Chiang Mai, there are a number of places to see them. We chose this particular one because they are very humane in their treatment of the elephants. They don’t have rides or other activities which are often considered abusive to these amazing creatures. If you choose, however, you can bathe with them in the river. Since we didn’t have our bathing suits with us, we had to pass.
Our first big surprise was how spacious and beautiful the camp grounds were!
To put it mildly, the elephants seemed very glad to see us — it might have been the basket of food we had purchased — and generally quite content with their new home at the Elephant Camp.
Unfortunately, I doubt if any of our new larger-than-life friends will be visiting us very soon in Japan. I think they’d have trouble getting through Immigration.
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
The Hmong are a unique indigenous people who have populated southern China for at least 8000 years. Unfortunately, in the 18th and 19th Centuries, they were targeted by the Qing Dynasty for extermination. This prompted most of them to migrate to other countries in southeast Asia: mainly Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand.
Masumi and I first encountered the Hmong in northern Vietnam in 2010. Here I am being greeted by them at the train station in Sapa, not far from the Chinese border.
More recently, on our return trip to Thailand — we were last there in December 2019, right before Covid shut down the world for travel — we visited a Hmong Village near Chiang Mai.
This is a real, functioning village. At the same time, it has been made “tourist friendly”, to encourage travelers to visit, learn about Hmong culture and crafts, and hopefully inject some money into their struggling community. It’s not easy for non-indigenous people to survive in Thailand. There are no factories or fast food restaurants to provide employment. All income for the town is generated within the closed, internal economic environment of the town.
There are some beautiful areas in the village, but most of it consists of bare-bone shops and rather shoddy residences, far from what could be called luxurious.
Let’s start with the gardens.
The town looked fairly typical of this part of the world. Lots of corrugated iron; crafts, clothing and jewelry shops; populated with friendly people and cute kids.
Now, those who’ve been following my writings here know that one of Masumi’s and my favorite things is to dress up in traditional costumes for the various and exotic locations and cultures we’ve encountered in our travels. We were in luck! The Hmong Village afforded just such a diversion. We frolicked around in one of the gardens for an hour, dressed as Hmong!
Without a doubt, that was the highlight of our visit!
