Chiang Mai, the major city in northern Thailand, has a long list of must-see historical sites, including a dizzying number of wats (temples), at least 300 of them. Perhaps the most spectacular is Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, on the slope of the 5,000-foot Doi Suthep peak, with sweeping views of the city. Established in 1383, it is one of the north’s most sacred temples; you approach it by climbing the 300 steps of a staircase built in the form of a dragon.
But it’s easy to get "wated-out," just as tourists in France, Germany and Italy feel weary and confused after visiting a dozen cathedrals and churches in a single day. Too many arches, columns, statues, tombs and relics. Too many towers, stupas and Buddhas.
It’s also easy to get shopped-out. The Chiang Mai area is Thailand’s major handicrafts center, with lower prices and better selection than in Bangkok. The industry is highly organized, with buses pulling up to huge stores selling jewelry, silk, lacquerware and handicrafts, disgorging their passengers to spend their dollars, pounds, euros, yen and yuan. Most tour companies get kickbacks (sorry, I meant to say “commissions”) for taking their customers to specific stores. If you understand that’s how the system works, that’s fine. Just don't believe your friendly tour guide when he says he'll get you that "special discount" because the store manager is his cousin.
After the students I was supervising left (some heading home, some for the beaches of the south), Stephanie, her mother and I moved to a small guesthouse in the inner city. It was nice to unwind, hang out in cafes and pubs, and shop on the markets. Chiang Mai has a large expatriate community (mostly Americans, British, Australians, French and Germans). For them, the city has all the cultural advantages of Bangkok, but fewer of the disadvantages. They run trekking companies, restaurants, guesthouses, pubs and other small businesses.
Stephanie and I lingered in a second-hand bookstore owned by an American. “Highlands,” a track from the 1997 Bob Dylan album, Time Out of Mind, was playing. “Well my heart's in the highlands at the break of day …” The song's title is thought to be borrowed from the poem "My Heart's in the Highlands" by Scottish poet Robert Burns, whom Dylan later cited as his greatest influence. We pored over the large selection of English language books while Dylan wandered from a conversation with a waitress in a Boston restaurant to the Scottish hills, horses and hounds. And so on, non sequitur. But not ad nauseam. “Highlands” was Dylan's longest known studio recording at 16½ minutes, but it fit my post-Bangkok decompression mood perfectly. I imagined that many people had come to Chiang Mai in the Thai highlands in the 1970s and 1980s to smoke opium and bond with nature, and just stayed. Their hearts were in the highlands. Somehow, it did not seem like such a crazy idea.
“The Highlands of Thailand” is Chapter Ten of Postcards from the Borderlands, to be published by Open Books in November. You can pre-order here. Here’s what readers who had a sneak preview are saying about it:
Armed with the conviction that “The everyday is often worth recording” travel writer David Mould takes readers on a journey to far-flung corners of Asia, Southern Africa and Eastern Europe. With an ear for dialogue and an eye for fresh detail, Mould explores the geopolitics of border regions not only through the lens of history but through his interactions with ordinary people. … The result is a book that will inform, entertain and inspire.” -Sharon Hatfield, author of Enchanted Ground: The Spirit Room of Jonathan Koons
Preview of “The Highlands of Thailand”
In Thailand’s bustling capital Bangkok, Stephanie visits the temple of Wat Pho, famous for its school of Thai massage, hoping that traditional medicine can fix a shoulder injury that has not responded to physical therapy. After the one-hour hot herb treatment, administered by a muscular woman whose only English words are “No pain, no gain,” she can move it again. And all for $6 with no out-of-network medical insurance deductible. We then escape from the noise, traffic jams and chaos for the historic northern city of Chiang Mai, in the highlands where Thailand borders Myanmar and China. A regional trading center, it has been captured and recaptured many times, but is now a popular tourist destination. Lots of wats (temples) and even more shops, but a laid-back place.
