Cultural Centre

The Chiang Mai Cultural Centre confirmed some of what we already knew. Chiang Mai is considered very culturally diverse because of its location and various hill tribes that have migrated to the area from Burma, China, and Laos. They are famous for their handicrafts. We did learn a few things too.

We learned that they had pre-historic settlers in their caves, that the hill tribes speak all different languages, and that the clothing they wear often has deeper meaning. Generally the museum was a bit dry, but the upstairs had some neat displays of Thai houses, markets, and agriculture.

The best part of the museum was the craft at the end. A man was painting flowers on umbrellas, and showing the kids how to make the flowers. The girls each got a piece of paper and followed his instructions. He made it look so easy, but of course it was so much harder than it looked. I couldn't resist and had to steal a corner of Yasmin's paper to try for myself!

We later splashed in the pool. I was surprised to see that it was a salt water pool like Kim and Kendra's pool next door at home. I guess those salt water systems are becoming popular over here too.

This evening we visited a little festival that was going on quite close to us. They had a lot of things for sale, and I couldn't resist a hill tribe jacket. It's black, but has colourful trip and bead work. I wish it was cool enough to wear it!

CM