Food, Shopping, and Scams

We didn't have very much planned today but after doing the Night Bazar yesterday, we thought we might check out a market called the Saturday Walking Street today. But as that didn't start until the evening, we had some time to kill.

First thing, we needed some breakfast. Here we are leaving through the front gate of our hotel.

We bought a couple of these Thai omelettes served on rice. They were made right in front of us by a street vender and cost less than a dollar each. While we were sitting on a park bench eating, a friendly young Thai guy came up and started talking to us. He said that his father spends half the year in Ottawa where he gets medical treatment. He told us he was just visiting Chiang Mai for his younger brother's wedding and suggested some nice Temples to visit and marked them on my map. He told us that we should avoid the Night Bazar because items there were more expensive and of lower quality and said that the city was famous for it's clothing. I asked him where a good spot to buy a suit was and he said the best price and quality was at Chiang Mai Fashions, the same place his brother was shopping for his wedding clothes.

He seemed genuine and I felt like I was the one who asked him about where to get a suit, but for some reason I never spoke to him in Thai and after he had left, I replayed the conversation with Heather to see if there was reason to be suspicious.

Then we visited the fruit cart next door and got some guava and pineapple. The word for guava, "farang", is also the word for "foreigner" so when I had Mason order in Thai, the salesman made the expected "farang eats farang" joke.

The guava comes with a dime bag of crack. Actually, it is just a mixture of salt, sugar, and ground chilli pepper, but it is a perfect compliment to the fruit.

After our healthy breakfast, we went back to our hotel where we checked out the sun tanning on the roof.

We started to make our way South towards the Walking Street market. Our hotel is located in the old part of Chiang Mai which is still surrounded by a square moat and some sections of the old protective wall. As we had lots of time, we stopped at this giant temple and ruins.

While we were looking for a washroom, a gentleman pointed to the ruins and said that there would be a buddhist ceremony there the next day that we should check out. He had a suit bag over his arm and I could read "Chiang Mai Fashions" on the business card. This time there was no doubt what was going on. Heather and I were exchanging looks as this guy told us he was from Eastern Thailand and had travelled to Chiang Mai to buy clothes for his clothing company. He said that he has an sister in law who lives in Toronto and was very interested in what our plans were while we were in Chiang Mai. I asked him where he gets his clothing from and tried to act surprised when he told me Chain Mai Fashions and described it as having the best quality cloth in town and being the only true Thai shop and not run by Indians, a pitch similar to that given by the first guy. We took our leave of this guy to find the bathroom and have a quick family huddle. The kids were so excited that we were part of a scam and that we had figured it out, but Heather and I were dissapointed with the confirmation that the first guy was just trying to steer us towards a certain shop to make a commission; he had seemed so nice.

This was easily my favorite temple we have seen so far. There was just something about it... so peaceful :)

Before long we found ouselves in front of Chiang Mai Fashions and a lady waiting outside invited us in. She told us that they were a Thai shop, and that their cloth was the best, and that what the Indian shop owners described as cashmere wool was in fact polyester. I asked how much to have suits cut for the three boys and her price was about twice as much as what we had been quoted at an Indian shop at the night bazaar. While I was talking to her, Ella was snooping around the shop and took a photo of a suit bag that she thinks is the exact bag that the second guy was carrying.

We then crossed the street to another temple that had been circled on our map by the first guy. This temple was really cool because it had a little pond in the back that you could walk over and watch turtles bobbing in the brown water, birds landing on the giant lilly pads, and occasionally, a giant catfish surface to eat a piece of bread. While we were sitting there, another guy approached us and started asking us where we were from, what we had done so far in Chaing Mai, and if we had any plans yet. He started to talk about elephant trecking and shopping but I just told him that we weren't really interested in that stuff. He moved over to the front gate and as we were leaving, started to ask us where we were headed next. After we left, I paused for a few minutes and then let Ella peek around the corner to see if he was on his cell phone. He wasn't but I'm sure that somewhere we have been identified as 'the family of six from Canada', or something like that.

By this time the kids were practically buzzing with excitement and Deacon said that figuring out this scam was the funnest thing we had done so far. Because we had been approached by guys at two of the temples that had been marked on the map by the first guy, we reasoned that we might be able to find a fourth guy if we visited the final temple that he had circled. After a lot more walking we found the fourth temple, but unfortunately did not get approached by anyone. We did see a guy who was sitting down talking with a pair of foreigners and thought that maybe he was part of the ring and that we had missed our chance due to timing. As we made our way back down the walking street, guess who I saw? The first guy from the morning, headed towards the temple. Probably to start his shift there.

It turns out that my dislike of shopping holds true regardless of location. Mom and Ella probably didn't get to spend as much time as they would have liked (ie, forever) because I rushed them. I would have left them but for safety we are sticking together as a family; also, they need me there to conduct negotiations.

It was amazing to see how talented the venders are and what they were able to do with everyday items.

Deacon was happy to get his elephant stuffy. We told him he could get one souvenir toy this trip but when he saw this elephant I suggested that he wait until later before choosing anything. We were almost at the end of that cursed street when we noticed he had his eyes closed and his arms folded. When he opened his eyes, I asked him if he wanted to go back and get the stuffed elephant.

Who am I to stand in the way of a child's prayer?

And another fan of Deacon. I thought I would start to snap photos of all his admirers.

- C