Satellite
  • Day 20

    A taste of the North

    December 28, 2016 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We spent 10 days in one of Thailand's northern-most cities, Chiang Mai. One week of the time was at the Elephant Nature Park where we lived at a sanctuary for elephants rescued from the abusive tourism industry (see last post). As volunteers, we were rewarded with some fantastic food! We had buffet meals every day which were totally vegan. That is because the founders of the park don't believe in any kind of animal cruelty. We got everything from grilled BBQ pork style vegan shish kebabs to hot dogs that I swear tasted exactly like the real thing!! And endless combos of coconut, noodles, tofu, and tofu-like textured meat substitutes!!

    The rest of our time here, we explored and got a true "taste" of this colorful region.

    We first visited a tribal village, Lisu, and got to see life there with a tour guide. Lisu is a mountain village of only 1000 people of Tibetan descent. Our guide took us to see a local artisan who hand-makes colorful bags and a shaman who can heal sickness. We drank Lisu tea in traditional bamboo cups in his healing house as we learned about the traditions here. Legend has it, only spirits can choose who will become the next shaman. He uses bones and other symbolic tools to see the future, approve or disapprove if a couple can get married, and heal villagers, often after modern medicines don't cure them.

    We then visited Araksa, the only tea plantation in Thailand which produces its tea strictly by hand. Dozens of other tea plantations in Thailand exist, but they use machinery. We got to hand pick tea leaves ready for green tea production (see pic of Marc and his basket of leaves), cook our leaves dry in a large wok, taste the teas we picked with traditional northern sweet roasted rice cookies, and even take the leaves home to drink as a souvenir of our own hard work!

    We got the ultimate taste of the city with a guided walking food tour! Our fantastic guide was Nat (border patrol policeman by day, foodie by night!). That's the second pic. He took us to six total stops that are known by locals to be the best food trucks and hole in the wall cafes. Tourists don't come to these hidden gems since the menus are only in Thai. We were lucky to experience true local eats: pad Thai noodles wrapped in a thin egg omelet burrito eaten with banana flowers, crunchy fried roti "crepes" with curry and chicken, a Chinese veggie called morning glory (broccoli-spinach hybrid) sauteed in garlic and pork skin, and a Lanna (northern ethnicity) style platter of minced chicken in spicy tomato sauce, coconut curry meats, crispy dried pork skins, marinated veggies and cucumbers to counter the hot spice, and green chili sauce in case it wasn't already hot enough. Of course, it was all served with sticky rice. The Lanna platter is also pictured in the second pic with Nat. And we topped off the night with Thai-spiced cocktails.

    Another northern specialty we tasted was Burmese cuisine, since this area used to be occupied by Burma (Myanmar). Our favorite was tea leaf salad, which is full of fresh vegetables, crunchy balls, and other components we couldn't really identify. After stumbling on some dried broad bean snacks at a convenience store much later, we discovered that those are part of the salad!

    In Chiang Mai, we even squeezed in a trip to the National Astronomy Research Institute of Thailand, NARIT. We came to give our dissertation talks there as visiting researchers (http://www.narit.or.th/en/index.php/job-opportu…) and to establish possible future collaborations. The center is only 8 years old but they may open an astrobiology branch soon! They were very welcoming and grateful, and they asked us great questions after our talks. We surely deserved our daily one-hour massage after that hard day, lol.

    I'm writing this post from one of the oldest and most revered temples in northern Thailand, Wat Doi Suthep, as I'm sipping passionfruit juice. Real, high quality, cold exotic fruit juices like this are available for very cheap on every street corner from vendors. They are one of the many interesting fruit and meat snacks you can buy in the streets literally every 10 metres. Another favorite is anything on a stick: grilled meats, balls of fish or tofu, whole pineapple, etc!

    At this temple, we got a taste of the sights of the colorful and sparkling temple and stupa structures as we smelled the incense traditionally burned as part of Buddhist blessings and prayers. We also visited several other Buddhist temples, including Wat Jetlin (or Chedlin), which was used for the coronation of Lanna (a northern Thai ethnicity) kings in the 16th century.

    At one temple, Wat Chedi Luang, we even got to meet a monk as part of the "chat with a monk" program. Temples encourage tourists to get to know the Thai and Buddhist ways of life and exchange their own experiences with monks. We met Saboan, pictured below. He came from Cambodia to go to study Buddhism in Thailand because it was less expensive. He splits his time between college classes (English and Buddhist studies) and the temple (prayers, chores, studying Buddhism). He's not allowed to play sports for fear that the public might not take monks seriously and respect them less, but he seems happy. He enjoys his monk community and sharing knowledge about Buddhism. He was also happy to practice English on us because he wants to become a tour guide in Cambodia after college.

    Now we are heading to a Word Heritage site for a few days, Sukhothai, where we will see ruins of the ancient Siamese empire and first capital of Thailand. "Khop khun ka" for reading and "sawadee ka" until next time!

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    Après notre semaine parmi les éléphants, on a passé quelques jours à Chiang Mai, deuxième ville de Thaïlande avec 400000 habitants (Bangkok en compte 15 millions). Un peu comme à Toulouse, une bonne partie sont des étudiants, et la vieille ville est entourée d'un canal, à vocation défensive. Chiang Mai est aussi beaucoup plus relax que Bangkok, voire hippie, avec plein de petits cafés et chambres d'hôtes. Je me verrais presque y habiter !

    Portés par cette ambiance détendue, on a fait des massages une priorité : aromatherapie dimanche soir en arrivant, pierres chaudes lundi, compresses aux herbes mardi, enrobage au miel mercredi, et tête et pieds jeudi avant de repartir. Il n'y a plus qu'à nous faire rôtir au four et on est prêts à servir !

    D'autant qu'on a été bien nourris, grâce à une balade gustative guidée par un gourmet local, Nat (voir description détaillée en anglais). Nat, la journée, enquête sur les trafics de drogue (héroïne et meth), de teck et d'ivoire à la frontière birmane. Les paysans frontaliers birmans et laotiens sont très pauvres, et la culture d'opium et son raffinement en héroïne, contrôlé par des gangs et barons, leur permet de survivre mieux que s'ils ne cultivaient que des légumes. Nat est amené de temps à autre à arrêter les malfrats en hélico, c'est un James Bond gourmand.

    Entre ces pauses relaxation et dégustation, on a visité plusieurs temples. Au premier abord on est submergés par les couleurs et les dorures, mais quand on s'y arrête quelques heures, comme à Wat Doi Suthep sur la colline qui borde Chiang Mai, on apprécie mieux l'art et l'architecture. Il nous manque quand même les codes approfondis du bouddhisme pour vraiment comprendre. On a pu échanger avec Saboan, un moine cambodgien, sur la vie étudiante en Thaïlande et en Occident.

    Enfin, on a passé un après midi scientifique au National Astronomy Research Institute of Thailand, fondé il y a 8 ans, pour presenter nos recherches et jeter les bases de possibles futures collaborations. Les chercheurs du NARIT ont été super accueillants, comme la plupart des gens qu'on a rencontrés depuis notre arrivée.

    Maintenant on repart vers le Sud, avec une étape à Sukhothai, la première capitale de Thaïlande, à 5h30 de bus si tout va bien.
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