Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


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A WINTER TRIP ON THE PING RIVER

Text : NyanTa & Tachyon
Photos : Tachyon

Now that the winter's arrived and the weather's cooler - at least in the mornings and evenings - nothing could be more appealing than a trip along the Ping Rivers with friends. Since last week I had some pals come up from Bangkok, I thought that taking a Mae Ping River Cruise would be just the ticket.

Iron Bridge

And so it turned out.

We decided to begin the trip around 4 pm, avoiding the heat of the day - right now the clarity of the air gets the mercury climbing: it won't be till the end of the month that it's likely to be cool in the middle of the day too. Our starting point was the pier of Wat Chaimongkol, one of Chiang Mai's oldest foundations. It's on the west bank of the river, almost opposite the Alliance Francaise, on the Charoen Prathet Road, just down from the Chedi Hotel. If you're not in the mood for walking there, take a rot sorng tau (red taxi). The drivers will know your destination. If you haven't been there before, you'll want to spend some time looking around, because the temple's not just scenically beautiful, with its tall old trees and spacious courtyards. It's also historically important. Founded around 600 years ago, when the power and influence of the Lanna kingdom was emerging, it was shaped by various cultural influences, and you'll find shrines and artifacts created by ethnic groups such as the Burmese and Laos. The Chinese too have a shrine here, devoted to Guan Im, the Goddess of Mercy, a Buddhist bodhisattva who is becoming of increasing importance both here in the North and also in Bangkok. The temple has such a friendly and tranquil atmosphere that many people come here to make merit, pay their respects to the Buddha images, and free birds, turtles and fishes, which the vendors will be happy to provide you with.

As I say, we began the river part of our trip at about 4 p.m., getting into a long narrow boat with seats for about 7 - 8 people, which in our case included the tour guide/navigator from the Mae Ping River Cruise, my friends and me. At first we thought this was the famous historical Scorpion Tailed Boat (rue hang mang pong) which, in the past, served as the cargo boat of choice travelling between the northern region and Bangkok. Go back only a hundred years, and the river was the main means of communication with the south and all manner of people - farangs among them - would make the journey that took six or more weeks. In those days, people lived close to the water, and their lives were shaped by their intimacy with it.

The Scorpion Tail Boat was one of the very popular forms of transport on the river in those days. As the name suggests, it had a distinctive curve at the end suggesting the up-lifted sting of the insect. Designed for travel on rivers that were variable in depth, they had little draught, and so were perfect for navigating the Ping River's shallows particularly during the summer months. Additionally, they were strongly built and could survive rough handling, so that it was only after the railway line was built and reached Chiang Mai that they became much less frequently seen. Nowadays, their hey-day past, they are used almost exclusively for touring. Our guide told us the one we were on was an adapted version of the Scorpion Tail Boat, known as the rue iam joon. It certainly looked almost the same, with only a few details altered.

From Wat Chaimongkol our cruise took us up-river towards our destination, a farming village about 8 kilometers or 45 minutes away. As we went, we enjoyed the cool air, the lap of the waves against the boat, some impressive trees and the people living under them on the banks. It surprised and impressed us how well some of the old communities, with their period houses and picturesque gardens survived the changing world all round us. Our guide meanwhile provided an informative commentary on what we saw - the ultramodern Chedi Hotel and the kua lek (Iron Bridge) at the start of the trip - the latter made in the classical style of the Navarat Bridge of forty and more years back - then the present-day Navarat Bridge, as busy in our time as it was when it was the main bridge for the region. We passed too the Dalat Dton Lamyai, Dalat Varorot's smaller brother, and Chiang Mai's oldest market complex: both great places incidentally if you want to buy Northern food and some souvenirs for the friends at home…and not forgetting cheap but sturdy clothes off the peg for yourself. Next - still within the city limits, we saw the white chedi, (chedi gew or khau in the vernacular), again on the west bank. It has some interesting tales associated with it that it's worth getting the guide to tell you. And I shouldn't forget all the historical locations on the east bank - the first Christian church with its distinctive spire, the elephant pier from which hundred of elephants rolled gigantic logs into the river for the journey south as rafts, and the little footbridge that takes people conveniently from the Wat Gaet area to the market the other side.

Once past the Mae Ping Bridge with its sizeable condo near-by, we were out in the country. Away from the city, what was impressive was the comparative simplicity of the life-style of the local people, a reminder of the days before the modern world, with its noise and bustle and business that gives little time for contemplation, took over. That also was the impression given by this little farmers' village that was our destination of the day, simply called Mooban Chao Na.

Being Thai, my friend and I noticed something strange while we were wandering around the village after having a bowl or two of khao soi, the local noodles in curry with an OK taste. We couldn't pinpoint what about the place felt a little weird, like one of these movie sets where nothing's quite as it appears to be. Maybe we all are exposed to too much western junk and in the process have become an alien to our cultural roots.

Maybe they just looked too Thai for me.