The Land of the Free

Thailand – so colorful!

Thailand – so colorful! From skyscrapers to homeless people, from luxuriant restaurants to food cooked on the street, so much traffic but no crashed cars, dirtiness, rats big as cats, lots of smells, hundreds of cables which are on the brink of falling, well known brands and stands with panties and wooden frogs, beautiful women and people who you can't tell if they are women or men, the best pancakes in the world and fried bugs, wild life, white sand and crystal water, poor but happy people - such simplicity that makes you desire to give up your ordinary life and become a fisherman.

40.717 Buddhism temples

Thailand is the 21st most-populous country, with approximately 64 million people. About 75% of the population is ethnically Thai and Chinese mix, 14% is of Chinese origin, and 3% is ethnically Malay; the rest belong to minority groups including Mons, Khmers and various hill tribes.

Totally chaotic, small 'khlongs' or canals are filled with flat boats piled high with fresh produce, each jockeying for position and paddled by ladies ready to stop and bargain at a moment’s notice.

"Art of Eight Limbs" or the "Science Of Eight Limbs" - it makes use of punches, kicks, elbows and knee strikes, thus using eight "points of contact", as opposed to "two points" (fists) in Western boxing and "four points" (hands and feet) used in sport-oriented martial arts.

Santi Chai Prakan Park

Khon is the most stylized form of Thai dance. It is performed by troupes of non-speaking dancers, the story being told by a chorus at the side of the stage.

Over a hundred years ago a Monk named Phra In Tha, from Bo Sang Temple, traveled to the Thai/Burmese border to make meditation. Whilst he was there a Burmese man brought him a hand painted paper Umbrella. On visiting the mans village, Phra In Tha, observed the villagers making the umbrellas and carefully wrote down various procedures that go into making of them.

Returning to Bo-Sang he passed on the information he had gathered and taught his own people how to make these most useful works of art.

Since then, the craftspeople of Bo Sang have developed a wide range of styles for the Umbrellas that have become a very famous part of Chiang Mai heritage.