Happy (Chinese) New Year!

Ok, it's a bit early but the chances of another newsletter coming out before the Year of the Rabbit actually start are about a thin as a hair. We don't know what it looks like in the U.S. right now, but here in Singapore the decorations are up and the stores are stocked with oranges and dried pork. Most of the country will close down for the week (the week of February 14^th) but we will miss most of the activity because we are flying to the land of kiwi and sheep, New Zealand. Assuming we survive the adventure, you'll probably get to read about that trip in a future edition.

Over the recent Hari Raya Puasa holiday (a Malay/Muslim celebration of the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting) long weekend (January 16^th-19^th) we ventured to Thailand and the city of Chiang Mai, the Rose of the North. When Greg was in high school here in Singapore, he and his friends planned a trip to Chiang Mai, a city which had the reputation of being like the Wild, Wild West, with the Thai government fighting Communist insurgents and heroin traffickers (the Golden Triangle is not too far away). It also had the reputation of being the home to Thailand's most beautiful women. Unfortunately (or, fortunately), that trip never happened. The Communist guerillas have disappeared and Chiang Mai has lost the Wild, Wild West atmosphere (assuming it really had it at some point). While it is Thailand's 2^nd largest city (with over a million residents), it remains a major tourist destination due to its huge number of ancient temples.

To say Chiang Mai is overrun with tourists is understatement: think of Washington, D.C. in the summer, replacing all of those families from Ohio with tourists from Germany or Spain and a huge number of backpackers. These people, (generally young Australians or Europeans), are spending a couple of years travelling all over the world with nothing more than a knapsack filled with three T-shirts and a copy of the "Lonely Planet Guide to…" travel books. Oh, and they evidently also have an e-mail address. Even in the heart of Chiang Mai, nestled next to ancient temples, there were shops that, in addition to booking tours and providing laundry service, also provide Internet access at 2 Baht (about US$0.05) a minute. We guess all of those backpackers want to keep up to date on the latest urban legends and obscene jokes.

In spite of all this, the sights of Chiang Mai are truly incredible. In the middle of the city is "old town Chiang Mai", the remains of the walled capital of the Lanna Kingdom which flourished in the 13^th century. In spite of being only a single square mile, this walled city is packed with somewhere between 200 (according to the guidebooks) and 500 temples (according to our tour guide). The really amazing thing is that each one is a very large, incredibly beautiful complex of 2-5 buildings.

We spent the first couple days on guided tours. Our first was a "Traditional Arts & Crafts Handicrafts Tour". As the experienced traveler will recognize, this tour features a long afternoon of, basically, shopping in very large showrooms filled with more overpriced knick-knacks than even the huge number of buses full of tourists can buy. Most feature a short demonstration of some form of craft (silver making, lacquerware, umbrella-making, pottery) and then ample time to browse. As many of you know, Thailand is experiencing some economic trouble and things are pretty bleak for many of the Thai people. Rest assured, Veronica (a.k.a. Ms. IMF) did her part to rectify the situation. We got several very nice things at not too terribly outrageous prices (we hope).

The next morning featured a trip out into the country to visit an Elephant Camp. Before the logging stopped (because too many trees were cut down), the elephants worked dragging logs through the jungle. Once the logging stopped, the elephants found themselves unemployed. Since they live 70-80 years, they needed to find something to do with all of their free time. So, outside of Chiang Mai, there are several Elephant camps where tourists can come out, see the elephants, watch them perform some amazing tricks (including playing soccer) and, for a small additional fee, ride one through the jungle. It was neat to be so close to so many of these huge animals (the camp we visited was home to close to 100) and the ride was a lot of fun. It is a little weird to be so high up (10-12 feet) and the motion takes some getting used to (not exactly Cadillac-smooth), but once you relax (Greg was initially very tense; big surprise) it's not a bad way to travel (for a half-hour, at any rate). That afternoon we visited a number of the temples.

The following day we got to explore Chiang Mai on our own and see another round of temples. Amazingly, each was different and you could spend weeks trying to visit all of them. The next morning, we took a half-day Thai cooking class before heading to the airport and home. The class was great fun; our first task was making our own green curry paste --this involves taking a very large quantity of green chillies and garlic and pounding them into a paste using a mortar and pestle. Quite a work-out, actually. We also made Pad Thai, two different soups, Thai green curry and a few other dishes. While we had to rush out to get to our flights home, it was a lot of fun. We'll have to try taking some more cooking classes on our travels.

On the last day of January, Singapore's Indian community held the annual Thaipusam Festival. The festival is to give thanks to the Hindu god, Lord Subramaniam. The most "interesting" feature of the festival (to the non-Hindu, camera-toting tourist) is the procession of the devotees from one temple to a second a couple of miles away. The devotees walk barefoot along the route and some carry kavadi. These are large metal frames decorated with peacock feathers and flowers "attached" to the body by a very large number of very long metal skewers. In addition to the skewers, devotees also hang bells and limes from metal hooks stuck into their skin. The devotees' cheeks and tongue are also pierced with metal skewers. It is quite an impressive sight to see these people carrying these huge things surrounded by friends singing and chanting encouragement. In spite of all of the piercing, there is little or no blood; somehow, the people's devotion numbs the pain and prevents bleeding. Even in this day of shopping malls full of pierced teen-agers, it was a quite a sight. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that there was a procession of chariots later in the day and missed it. Even so, we took lots of pictures (which should, some day, find their way to the web).

Well, we are off to the airport and our New Zealand holiday. Veronica has pointed out that this newsletter needs some sort of conclusion but we are having trouble being creative with the clock ticking, so…

Gong Xi Fai Cai! (which we hope means Happy New Year! in Mandarin. If not, whoops, we're sorry.)