Being an ethical tourist really puts the kabosh on activities in Thailand. Well, actually Pallavi is the real ethical tourist. I totally would have done it if she hadn't told me better.
We went further north to the small town of Chiang Rai. It's surrounded by wildlife reserves, elephant conservation centres, tigers, and hill tribes. It's also two hours to the nearest border crossing with Laos. We thought it'd be the perfect last stop in Thailand. We'll go see some hill tribes and wildlife, get a Thai massage, and say our goodbyes.
The elephant conservation centers, which only allow tourists to act as temporary caretakers (feed, bathe, clean up crap) for semi-wild elephants, were booked out. Every other wildlife tour always involved some sort of 'circus' element.
Exhibit A: Take care of an elephant and then have an elephant ride/trek out to the wild. Uhh... doesn't sound like rehabilitation to me. I mean, I get it. It's a ride on an elephant. Pretty cool. However, that's not conservation. No elephants for us.
Exhibit B: Go and have your pic taken next to a tiger. I have friends who have done this activity, but I know what happened to Sigfield & Roy. We don't believe sitting next to a wild tiger is safe, and we don't believe in drugging the tiger to make sitting next to it safe. So no tigers for us.
Then there are the hill tribes. We started looking up where we could go to visit the 'long neck' tribe. We could not believe the number of articles that advised us not only to not visit the long neck, but also not to visit any of the hill tribes whatsoever. The hill tribes no longer really dress in traditional clothes unless it's for a special festival. The hill tribes you can go on tours to visit have 'signed up,' and put on the traditional clothes as part of the 'show.' Participants include the 'long neck' tribe, whose traditional clothes actually cause physical pain to its women. Not only that, but most of these tribes only get a fraction of the proceeds from the tour. There are NPOs trying to change that, having tribe people 'sign up,' but getting all of the proceeds from tourists who come to their village. However, it is still just a 'show.'
Let's say you decide to forget the tour agents and the NPO villages and then just try to find these hill tribes on your own. You might find a hill tribe living in a traditional way; however, most people would not be dressed traditionally. Not only that, but you've basically rocked up to their village without invitation as a spectator and the people don't profit from it. I know we use people for tourism all of the time - look at the Amish. However, Amish villages are usually near a town and has a store - which indicates the village is open to people visiting it. Plus, most people who visit the Amish at least go and buy some yummy baked good from their store, so the people get some income from it. Not the case with hill tribes. So no hill tribes for us.
Instead, we took it easy.One thing we love about Thailand is that it feels like no matter where you go or the size of the town, the culture is always on display. For example, in Krabi town, our hotel was right across from a night market with a stage that had hours of cultural performances (including one that we can't get out of our head). Even Chiang Rai's baby night market had 2 stages with multiple performers who performed every night!
We also went to Chiang Rai's White Temple. Going to Chiang Rai and not seeing this temple would be like going to Barcelona and not seeing anything by Gaudi. This temple is like Frozen meets Dante's Inferno meets Gaudi meets Buddhism. Seriously. The temple itself looks like it is dripping in icicles covered in frosting. It's much more modern than Gaudi, but has his same over-the-top architectural style. Only these artists really takes the demonification of consumerism and personal possession to a level I have not seen in Buddhism. You pass something that looks like the bad scene in Little Mermaid when Arial is going to see Ursula and she has to pass that whole bed of just hands reaching up in torment (in my head that's how I think it is) in order to cross the entrance bridge. Outside of the temple, there are hanging carved heads of movie characters like Gollum, Wolverine, Malificent, etc. Once you get into the temple, there is a beautiful scene that wraps the entire interior. You start at the back of the temple with images of Hollywood characters, 9/11, bombs, etc. all wrapped in flames going into the mouth of a Devil-like creature, except a few souls on various boat-like vessels who are floating towards the Buddha at the front of the temple. Heavy stuff, but super cool.
Finally, I got a Thai massage. It was like 4 months of stress got the crap massaged out of it. It made me wonder if I shouldn't just take a massage class sometime. I already give (might I say) decent back rubs. Why not make some money out of it? I'll contemplate a bit more. However, Thai massages are a full work out for the masseuse, what with using their feet and legs in addition to their hands. I loved it. I've gotta go find another country known for massages as we travel along so I can know when to look forward to my next one.
Tomorrow, Laos!
We went further north to the small town of Chiang Rai. It's surrounded by wildlife reserves, elephant conservation centres, tigers, and hill tribes. It's also two hours to the nearest border crossing with Laos. We thought it'd be the perfect last stop in Thailand. We'll go see some hill tribes and wildlife, get a Thai massage, and say our goodbyes.
The elephant conservation centers, which only allow tourists to act as temporary caretakers (feed, bathe, clean up crap) for semi-wild elephants, were booked out. Every other wildlife tour always involved some sort of 'circus' element.
Exhibit A: Take care of an elephant and then have an elephant ride/trek out to the wild. Uhh... doesn't sound like rehabilitation to me. I mean, I get it. It's a ride on an elephant. Pretty cool. However, that's not conservation. No elephants for us.
Exhibit B: Go and have your pic taken next to a tiger. I have friends who have done this activity, but I know what happened to Sigfield & Roy. We don't believe sitting next to a wild tiger is safe, and we don't believe in drugging the tiger to make sitting next to it safe. So no tigers for us.
Then there are the hill tribes. We started looking up where we could go to visit the 'long neck' tribe. We could not believe the number of articles that advised us not only to not visit the long neck, but also not to visit any of the hill tribes whatsoever. The hill tribes no longer really dress in traditional clothes unless it's for a special festival. The hill tribes you can go on tours to visit have 'signed up,' and put on the traditional clothes as part of the 'show.' Participants include the 'long neck' tribe, whose traditional clothes actually cause physical pain to its women. Not only that, but most of these tribes only get a fraction of the proceeds from the tour. There are NPOs trying to change that, having tribe people 'sign up,' but getting all of the proceeds from tourists who come to their village. However, it is still just a 'show.'
Let's say you decide to forget the tour agents and the NPO villages and then just try to find these hill tribes on your own. You might find a hill tribe living in a traditional way; however, most people would not be dressed traditionally. Not only that, but you've basically rocked up to their village without invitation as a spectator and the people don't profit from it. I know we use people for tourism all of the time - look at the Amish. However, Amish villages are usually near a town and has a store - which indicates the village is open to people visiting it. Plus, most people who visit the Amish at least go and buy some yummy baked good from their store, so the people get some income from it. Not the case with hill tribes. So no hill tribes for us.
Instead, we took it easy.One thing we love about Thailand is that it feels like no matter where you go or the size of the town, the culture is always on display. For example, in Krabi town, our hotel was right across from a night market with a stage that had hours of cultural performances (including one that we can't get out of our head). Even Chiang Rai's baby night market had 2 stages with multiple performers who performed every night!
We also went to Chiang Rai's White Temple. Going to Chiang Rai and not seeing this temple would be like going to Barcelona and not seeing anything by Gaudi. This temple is like Frozen meets Dante's Inferno meets Gaudi meets Buddhism. Seriously. The temple itself looks like it is dripping in icicles covered in frosting. It's much more modern than Gaudi, but has his same over-the-top architectural style. Only these artists really takes the demonification of consumerism and personal possession to a level I have not seen in Buddhism. You pass something that looks like the bad scene in Little Mermaid when Arial is going to see Ursula and she has to pass that whole bed of just hands reaching up in torment (in my head that's how I think it is) in order to cross the entrance bridge. Outside of the temple, there are hanging carved heads of movie characters like Gollum, Wolverine, Malificent, etc. Once you get into the temple, there is a beautiful scene that wraps the entire interior. You start at the back of the temple with images of Hollywood characters, 9/11, bombs, etc. all wrapped in flames going into the mouth of a Devil-like creature, except a few souls on various boat-like vessels who are floating towards the Buddha at the front of the temple. Heavy stuff, but super cool.
Finally, I got a Thai massage. It was like 4 months of stress got the crap massaged out of it. It made me wonder if I shouldn't just take a massage class sometime. I already give (might I say) decent back rubs. Why not make some money out of it? I'll contemplate a bit more. However, Thai massages are a full work out for the masseuse, what with using their feet and legs in addition to their hands. I loved it. I've gotta go find another country known for massages as we travel along so I can know when to look forward to my next one.
Tomorrow, Laos!
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