Day 19 & Day 20: Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai

Day 19: Spent the day traveling from Bangkok to Chang Mai, which is in the north. It is much more relaxed here than Bangkok, though not as modern, but I am enjoying it. It is the 2nd largest city in Thailand. I did spot a couple of 7/11's here already. They are quite popular in Thailand. We went to the Night Bazzar later that night, and boy was it a bazzar they had stalls from one side of the street to the other, we had realized we had spent too much time at the first section of the bazzar that we needed to come back for another trip. My friend Kim and I spent the day having fun haggling over prices with the local vendors. I was trying to practice my negotiations skills for when I come back and get a job, hope it helps...

Day 20: Spent the day taking a tour of Chang Rai and to the 'Golden Triangle', which is where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Burma meet. The drive over was nice, lots of greenery and we saw woman working in the rice paddy fields. We got to Chang Rai and went to a Buddhist temples. The Buddha's in Chang Rai are more distinct, since they have longer ears than the other Buddha's. Then we took a boat ride on Mekong River and saw the 'Golden Triangle'. We went over to the Laosian side and went over to check out some local vendors. One interesting product that they sold was whiskey with a 'scorpion and corbra' inside of it. Then we headed towards the border of Burma, went shopping and even spotted the last 7/11 in Thailand, before crossing the border to Burma....got have one.

Then we headed over to hill tribes to see the Karen Hilltribe aka 'Long Necked Woman', just at the border of Myanmar (Burma), in a small secluded valley right outside the provincial City "Mae Hong Son" of the Mae Hong Son province. The Padaung, or Ka-Kaung as they call themselves, are a subgroup of the Karen. Ka-Kaung means 'people who live on top of the hill'. Padaung women are often referred to as 'giraffe' or 'long-necked' because of the custom of placing brass rings around their necks from when they are young girls until they marry. The practice is fast disappearing. In fact it is not the neck which has stretched but the shoulders which have been forced down by the weight and pressure of the rings. The long-necked people, the Padaung (a Karen subgroup from Burma). Some (not all) of the young girls start applying brass coils at an early age of 5-6 in order to elongate their necks. Legends suggest this custom may have to do with imitating dragons and presumably it is also considered attractive. Woman in this tribe are the head of the household...not bad I would say. They had stalls outside and we shopping around. All the woman had the brass rings on their necks some even had them on their legs....

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!