Alex Gunn [Gunn - The Other Tales of Chiang Mai

The Other Tales of

Chiang Mai

A Short Booklet

By Alex Gunn

The Other Tales of Chiang Mai
Copyright 2018 Alex Gunn

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system without the expressed written, dated and signed permission from the author.

Table of Contents

Introduction

This is a collection of short stories and articles, about the unusual jungle city of Chiang Mai. It was originally published along with The Chiang Mai Food Diaries.

We have lived in Chiang Mai for nearly ten years and our children have grown up here. In the comparatively short space of time that we have been here, the changes have been huge; fresh milk is available at all 7 Eleven convenience stores, there is a skating rink, a snow dome, a choice of five massive shopping malls, oyster bars, cheese shops, revolving sushi bars, electric bike tours, a Hard Rock Caf, a Russian Vodka Bar and a loads of direct flights from all over the world, including the Middle East, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Singapore as well as all the neighbouring countries. In short, Chiang Mai is rocking. Its heaving with tourists and changing fast.

As well as these modern day arrivals there co-exist elements from a much older way of life, things, that I fear are disappearing just as quickly as new Italian pizza restaurants are opening. It was this sense of change that prompted much of the writing in this short booklet. I wanted to record some of the old street trades, the old guys who are known as Blacking Men, the old guy whose job it is to burn dead bodies at a nearby temple and the old men who shoot basking catfish with deadly home-made harpoon guns. There is a whole other side of Chiang Mai that is far, far away from the glitzy shopping malls and the Karaoke Bars, and this little booklet is a little peep into that hidden world.

Everything that follows is true by the way.

Alex.

Little Ginger Lily:
Forgotten Waterways of Chiang Mai

Is it just me or is there something wonderfully mysterious and romantic about old forgotten waterways that meander unnoticed through modern cities?

Chiang Mai is a beautiful city and has many waterways that add interest and intrigue as well as cooling the hot city air. It is one of only a handful of cities in the world that is still fully surrounded on all sides with an impressive moat inhabited by huge, sluggish old catfish and our old friends, the all invasive silver Tilapia. Growing along the banks of the moat are ancient Flame Trees with burning red blossom and also the wonderful and giant Dipterocarp trees, some of which reach well over one hundred and fifty feet tall. On hot summer days children climb out along the branches that overhang the water and jump into the water below to the astonishment and shock of passing motorists.

In an act of unprecedented local authority generosity, almost unheard of in these days of tight-fisted bureaucrats and financial cutbacks, there is an elaborate system of ornamental fountains that shoot water high into the hot air on all sides of the city. Top marks to the Bureau of Fountain Development, of which, I am sure, there is a bustling department office somewhere in the city, staffed by serious looking men in immaculate military style uniforms and young women in tiny skirts who operate the ancient photocopiers.

Chiang Mai owes its very existence to water in the shape of the steady old River Ping, which in days gone by allowed passage and trade to China, Burma, the rest of Siam and the world. After giving birth to the city, the same river dramatically flooded and destroyed it, prompting a hasty relocation 700 years ago to the present safer, drier site. (The ruins of the old city Wiang Khum Khan, meaning walled city, can still be seen a little to the east, down river. The surviving ancient temple now known as Wat Chedi Liam, is really worth a visit and built in the old Mon style, and is still inhabited by monks who worship Brahma as well as the teachings of Buddhism.)

Alongside the mighty River Ping, flows (or stagnates would be more accurate) the humble and forgotten Klong Mae Kha, romantically named after the Ginger Lily (known to cooks as Galangal) that must have once grown wild along its shady banks, or perhaps was cultivated in neat riverside vegetable gardens, lovingly tended by gardeners who felt blessed for being able to live next to such a wondrous resource. Whimsically I like to imagine both.

Unfortunately, nowadays, the Ginger Lilies have all gone, having been replaced by debris from modern day living; rusting tin cans, plastic bags, empty instant noodle pots and discarded energy drink bottles rub shoulders with the choking Water Hyacinth.

The Mae Kha was though, at one time, a river of great importance which played a vital role in Chiang Mais history and even its modern day survival.

Cast your minds back, if you will some 500 years. The wild ginger lilies nodded peacefully alongside the clear, bubbling waters of our little river, women washed clothes, men tended vegetable gardens and children from the neighbouring villages caught little fresh water fish. Chiang Mai was a very different place.

The Burmese had quietly been eyeing up Chiang Mai from over the mountains, realising it would make an excellent stronghold to launch attacks further south into Siam and Ayutthaya. For over 200 years from 1558 to 1774 Burma held control of the city during a time of constant struggle and upheaval. The use of our little river as part of a city defence system was not lost on such battle-sharp people. And so, work began upon an incredibly ambitious and elaborate undertaking which basically turned our small pretty little river into an impressive fortified secondary outer moat with a massive inner wall. Local streams were diverted and huge earthen ramparts were built, effectively sealing off the city from attack from the southern forces behind a massive outer city rampart, at the bottom of which flowed a massive moat which was once our sleepy little river. If you look at a map its still visible and loops from the south west corner of the old city, through the south and right the way back up to the north east corner and covers about six miles.

This would be an incredibly complex engineering project by todays standards, let alone nearly 500 years ago. It must have taken thousands of people years to build, using nothing more than buckets and shovels, brute force and ancient ingenuity. It would certainly have sent the Bureau of Fountain Development into overdrive, the photocopying alone would have gone on for months.

So what happened to all of this; the outer defensive moat and huge earthen ramparts?

Well, not a lot really. When the now immortalized Chao Kawila bounded heroically into Chiang Mai at the end of the 1700s, reclaiming, and, as it says in the history books, re-populating, the city once again for the Thai people, the old outer ramparts and our once little river were forgotten about and largely ignored. Well, to be more accurate they were, completely forgotten about and totally ignored.

Incredibly, and I really do find it incredible, it is all still here just as Chao Kawila left it nearly 200 years ago, albeit somewhat abused and forgotten. As the city grew the ramparts where consumed within back gardens, housing developments and bars, and our defensive outer moat was used for waste disposal. Drains were conveniently funnelled into it, not helped by the fact that the water flow is almost non existent.