Chiang Mai #2

Last weekend I headed back to Chiang Mai with another U of M teacher for a second visit.  Chiang Mai was one of my favourite destinations in Thailand, and once again I did some amazing things and had a lot of fun.

The old city wall in Chiang Mai.

Saturday, my teaching friend and I chose to go on a white water rafting tour in a river in the mountains.  Unlike most of my other tours, this one was packed!  I think that tourism is picking up right now as schools are letting out for the summer, because everywhere we go on weekends there seems to be more foreigners than a couple weeks ago.  Now that it is rainy season, the rivers have grown from what they were before.  Still, the water was not terribly high.  Apparently, the river is white (hence white water) in November, but while we were there it was a murky reddish brown, like the dirt.  Rafting was actually much easier that I anticipated, and the paddling was not very strenuous at all.  At times, we had to duck down in the boat and brace ourselves to hold on, but I never really fell like I was going to fall out.  The rapids we went through looked impressive afterwards though.  Funnily enough, while rafting we ran into a family of Winnipeggers on vacation.  Overall, although it wasn’t as scary as I anticipated, it was still worth doing.

White water rafting on the Mekong River.

Sunday, I signed up for a fishing tour alone.  The tour guide at our hotel laughed at me and said I was the only girl who ever wanted to go fishing in all the 3 years and 4 months since the hotel has been open.  I ended up on the tour with two Thai guides and a man and son from Holland who were very nice to me.  We fished for Mekong Giant Catfish in what appeared to be a stocked lake right in Chiang Mai.  The lake was only about 4 feet deep, and the surface was constantly rippling with fish coming to the surface.  Fishing for the catfish was pretty strange considering how I was used to fishing at home.  For one thing, our rods and reels were huge.  We used mashed up bread with some sort of scent additive that reminded me a lot of stuffing.  There was a little cage on the end of the lines for holding extra bait to lure in fish, which fell out in the water immediately.  Casting the rods was awkward for me because the end of the lines weighed quite a lot.  After casting, we set the drags on the reels on a loose setting and put the rods on the shore to wait for a fish to bite.  In total, I ended up catching 6 giant catfish, which were all very big.  My biggest weighed 26 kilos, and took half an hour to reel in.  After that, my wrists were killing me and my stomach was sore from where the rod kept digging in, but it was totally worth it!  I can’t take full credit for all the catches because the guide was the one who hooked the fish, and half the time it was his rod that I was reeling in, but I had the fun of enjoying the fish fight.  I am very glad I chose to come back to Chiang Mai and experience that tour!

One of my giant mekong catfish.

I chose only to do a half-day with fishing because I also wanted to go to the Chiang Mai gun range, run by a battalion.  I taxied there, and walked into the building.  I was completely taken aback because inside was a gun case stocked with hand guns that was wide open, and the workers didn’t ask me any questions before asking me to choose a gun.  Gun safety is apparently much more lax in Thailand than it is back home (with little surprise).  I chose a .38 revolver, and got 30 rounds to shoot at a poster on the range.  There, someone stood with me and showed me how to operate the gun, but I was never lectured at all about safety, which was unsettling.  Shooting was a lot of fun, and I would have probably gone through every gun available if it wasn’t so expensive.  Overall, the trip was totally worth my while, and if I ever return to Thailand I will plan to spend most of my time in Chiang Mai.  

Shooting in Chiang Mai.