Fish Massage at Chiang Rai

Fish massage in the night market of Chiang Rai was another first time experience for me. We felt like models being put on display to promote a merchandise for the store owners. Endless stream of people kept looking at this couple whose faces showed all kinds of expressions after being repeatedly pricked and sucked by hundreds of little fish.

After our "promotional exercise for the outlet", the number of people who queued up to do the fish massage seemed to have markedly increased, at least more elderly couples!

Food in Northern Thailand

The ladies were not very impressed with the food served at this restaurant overlooking the confluence of Ruak river and Mekong River at the Golden Triangle. This restaurant basically cater for tourists who come to visit the Golden Triangle. They told the tour guide that they would write about this place.

Personally, I did not have issue about the food. At least, the building structure impressed me. I was amazed to see such huge columns made literally from tree trunks which I believe are teak.

In this restaurant, we tried Thai pancakes for the first time.

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To assuage the "displeasure" of the ladies on food, our tour guide quickly made a few phone calls and later stopped for lunch at a road side restaurant along the way back from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai. Beside the restaurant proper, a few huts are built just outside the main hall overlooking the Chiang Rai-Chiang Mai highway.

This is where we ate Thai Tom Yam inside Thai territory for the first time. The food was really good this time.

We also had first hand experience to see how Thai politicians do their campaign - a truck mounted with big poster and the loud speaker blasting political slogans and urging people to vote for so and so, This is very much like our recycled truck which occasionally come to the housing estate with the loud speaker turned on, and the phrase is repeated non-stop "collect old newspapers, collect old newspapers.......................".

We had twice the much talked about "Thai Mango Sticky Rice" - once at a night market and the other time in a restaurant just before leaving Chiang Mai for the airport. They were yummy.

Our Massage ladies strongly recommended us to try the Chinese restaurant which is a few doors away from their outlet and opposite our hotel, Chiang Mai Plaza Hotel. As it turned out, this is run by a Teochew family with the surname of Chia. The dish of the night - Suckling pig! Four of us ate up the whole piglet. Even the towkay ngeoh (proprietor's wife) was amazed at our appetite!!

Tiger Kingdom, Chiang Mai

Tiger Kingdom is a place where people can go into a cage to touch, hug and cuddle a tiger, an awesome experience for many. Some however do not have kind words about this place - where tigers are caged and kept under sedation to prevent them from attacking the human.

Personally, I do not think it is possible to put these tigers under continuous sedation without obvious health repercussion to this animal. At the time of our visit, all the tigers looked lethargic. Whether it's because it's noon time or they had been just fed, I was not sure!

People I saw who dared to cuddle with the tigers are Caucasians and none were Asian looking people!

Any attack on human? I heard there was but I could not find any such news in the internet.

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Around the tiger enclosure, there is a restaurant which was packed with people. Outside the Tiger Kingdom, there is an orchid farm and a butterfly centre. The orchid farm has a good collection of orchid but the butterfly centre was a disappointment. It is a very small set-up and I could find only two butterflies!

Outside the Tiger Kingdom, youngsters could try stabilizing inside a floating water ball.

If you have seen tigers before and you are planning a visit to Chiang Mai, it's probably not worth to include this place into the itinerary. But if you intend to test your level of Fear Factor, this is probably a good place to do so - cuddle a living tiger!

Encounter with a Seasoned Businesswoman

Immediately after disembarking from the elephant ride, we walked through a row of stores which sold local handicrafts, souvenirs and clothing. The ladies could not resist picking up a few items.

As usual, we had been warned to always bargain first for whatever price offered before taking up the offer. We found this old lady with a little baby really interesting.

YK : How much is this blouse?

Lady: TB200.

YK: How about TB150?

Lady: (grinning broadly with a finger pointing to her mouth) Milk! Milk! (Then pointing to the baby at her back then signalling 4 fingers) Four! Four! No discount.

YK: (very spontaneous and raising a hand with 5 fingers) I have five! Five! Must give discount!

Lady: No! No! (Again pointing to her mouth) Milk! Milk!

Well, with her marketing skill, there was just no way the ladies had the heart to demand further discount.

In the end, the ladies bought the local woven blouses. The old lady grinned in triumph, She then offered two free purses as gifts.

At one Elephant Sanctuary in Chiang Mai

A trip to Chiang Mai without visiting one of the elephant sanctuaries would be considered incomplete. Our tour guide told us that there are three main such "sanctuaries" that cater for tourists. The one chosen by our tour agent is Maetaman Elephant Camp & Bamboo Rafting which he claimed is the most established among the three.

Practically, all such sanctuaries provide four basic things for the visitors: elephant ride, elephant show, bullock cart ride and bamboo rafting. For some who like to learn about paper making using elephant dung , they can ask to pay a visit to the paper making facility. Some sanctuaries also offer flying fox to the more adventurous tourists.

Getting on an elephant and riding on one is indeed a thrilling experience. Our mahout, the elephant trainer is a small-built man. He was bare-footed and carried a metal hook to guide and manoeuvre his elephant. With his vast experience in taking countless tourists along this familiar trail, he knew how to instill fear mixed with calculated risks to make the ride truly a fun-filled and exciting experience - Just when the elephant was about to fall into a ravine at a trail bend with us yelling at the top of our voice, the mahout manoeuvred the animal away from "disaster" at  the very last second!

These elephants are no ordinary elephants. After years of contact with obliging tourists, they know how to take full advantage of them. Without being fed with bananas or sugar canes bought by people like us from food stations along the trail, the animal just refuse to move.

Crossing hilly terrian and river!

The mahout guides the elephant by tapping the elephant head using his bare foot. Occasionally, the sharp hook is used when the animal is not so obedient.

The elephants proved to be very entertaining during the elephant show. The artistic skill of some of them was very impressive. At the end of the show, painting was put up for sale at TB1,000 a piece.

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The sanctuary also claims to be environmental friendly and committed to recycling. Elephant dung is not wasted but converted into paper. Fibres is abstracted from the elephant dung, pounded into paste, washed into pulp and then sieved and dried into paper!