Once Upon A Thai: Chiang Mai

This morning our group woke up bright and early at four in the morning to make it to our seven o'clock flight. Before long we were on our way to the beautiful province of Chiang Mai! Once we arrived there we met up with a guide who taught us about the city's history while taking us up the mountainside. In the gardens at the mop of the mountain there were some people dressed in Thai costumes who some of us took pictures with. The funny thing is after we got our picture made they handed us their camera because they wanted pictures with us! There was even a little four year old girl dressed in costume who appeared to be targeting adult white males. After playing around with them and taking pictures she would stick out her hand and say what appeared to be the only word that she knew in English, money. Of course they happily handed her some and she would skip off to her next victim. I wonder who trained her to do this? How common is it? What kind of an effect does making money by manipulating people with your cuteness have on her psychosocial development?

Once we descended from the mountain we visited a temple. While there I found some really nice handmade postcards and local crafts. I am already spoiled by the cheap prices here and know that I will have a very hard time paying more than five dollars for clothes when I come home.

After the temple it was time to grab some lunch. We went to this amazing orchid farm that was also a restaurant. I wish that I could bring you all back an orchid! Sadly America does not allow such things.

After lunch we went to a silk and silver factory. It was really cool to see the whole process of making silk, and they had a really cute store full of things that were handmade at the factory. Real silk is so much more expensive than the fake stuff that they sell on the streets. Go figure huh?
Once we were done ogling over expensive we checked in at our hotel and rested up for a bit. Later that evening we had dinner at this amazing Thai restaurant that included a traditional dance/drums/martial arts show! While there we sat on seat cushions and ate endless platters of delicious food. Towards the end of the program one of then even pulled me up to dance with them! When everybody finished eating there were fireworks and we released some of those giant paper lanterns into the sky. This was by far my favorite activity of the day. Although I know it was different it made me remember when I was a kid who did karate and Chinese dance.