City of Chiang MaiAgain, the ride up was on an amazing road. No scary drivers this time though. Only a beautiful twisty road winding up to a temple. Only a short distance away from the temple were two villages. One of them was Hmong and i forgot what the other one was.
Unfortunately, due to their proximity to the city, they had lost their 'villageness' only to be replaced by little shops to cater to tourists (both foreign and Thai). Thus making them quite lame. I only paid attention long enough to take a few pictures. I felt awkward walking into the less touristy streets. So besides a few pictures of scenery mixed with housing, i wasn't able to get much else.
There was a very cute little girl in a garden that we visited. She's the one that showed us where the poppies were. She then showed me another flower that was basically as big as she was. I asked her to hold it so I could take a picture, but one of the people i was with warned me that she would ask for money after i took the photo. Although i probably would have gave her about 10 THB (i guess that would have been enough) it still really annoyed me. It would have been such an awesome picture.
A poppy in the poppy garden
View from the poppy garden
Waterfall in the poppy gardenThe problem is, you're always torn between selfishness and selflessness. Its getting something unique/special/rare as a once in a lifetime memento (my picture of this girl, or feeding an elephant), while at the same time knowing that you're fueling this type of behavior. Although for this little girl, to take a pic for money is quite harmless, (and she probably doesn't know what she's doing). However, feeding an elephant being walked/dragged through the streets of Bangkok to for the entertainment of tourists is not.
Anyways, I'll keep this post short. i want to sleep early today.
4 comments:
hey brian... it's ur cuz from Toronto... just watching a Outdoor Life Network show call "don't forget your passport" or sumthing like that, and it's taking place in China.... and so i hear and see your doing something that's a experience of a life-time as i'm typing you this message right now... something i hope to do in my life-time as well... which i doubt but who knows.
i wish i could join ya, but how the heck did u get 6 months off to do something like this (heard from my mom)
well with all the time you've got on your trip, stay safe and take your trip to the fullest...
P.S. if your ever in places like thai-land, bangkok.... i know they maybe tempting and hard to tell the differences from you and me... but stay away from the asian lady-boys....
i miss u!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Post a Comment