Meeting the Long Neck tribe people in Chiang Mai

The previous post in this series is here..

Joy showed up in the morning to pick us up at 7AM sharp. We had received the breakfast and they gave what they could. San was covered. I was not. Luckily I still had some energy bars left for the day. We also wanted to stop by a pharmacy to get some throat lozenges. Joy helped San buy stuff. It was good we had a translator!

With a quick pharmacy stop, we were on our way to our first stop on a very packed day. Joy was surprised that we wanted to see all that in one day, but we promised him we will step up and we will be done before 6PM for sure. He simply smiled. As we drove out of the busy area of Chiang Mai, he showed us the old houses in the area made of Teak wood on one street where the trees were also old and lined the street on both sides. It was going to be an almost 100km drive. Gave us some rest. We saw an airplane that was converted to a restaurant on the way as well.

Our first stop was to visit the Long neck tribe who are originally from Burma but have been given refuge in Thailand. They can sell trinkets to tourists and have some land to cultivate crops for themselves, but are restricted to that area. The women have long necks and wear a heavy set of rings from the time they are children. Originally only women born on a full moon Wednesday had to wear it. Now all girls are wearing it here. Learning about their history and way of life was interesting. We took some photos with the women and children, bought some souvenirs and walked back to the car. The river that ran through their area was key to their survival and there were beautiful waterfalls right near the houses of the tribe.

A few more photos..

A video highlights reel..

The reason for visiting them first was that the next stop wasn’t going to be ready for us that early and they were on the way..

An 83000 square meter palace - Istanbul Day 2 afternoon

The previous post in this series is here..

Afer a quick stop at our hotel to wash and change clothes we had to make it back to the German water fountain to meet our guide and other group members. The little one who was busy studying for the exam of a lifetime, decided to stay put in the hotel. The three of us made it in time and went for a long long walk with the guide to Topkapi palace.

This was a monstrous palace. There were way too many sections and this is also a very large museum. There were sections that showed life as it was during the Sultanate 500 years ago, to the French style addition in early 1900’s.

This is some diamond on display at the museum! Not going to go into the details here.. but it is 86 Karats and is called the Spoonmaker’s diamond! Has a very interesting story behind it!

Two vertical pano shots and a horizontal pano.. the views were amazing both inside and outside the palace. We would have spent more time here if we were not on such a tight schedule and it was cooler outside.

We covered as much as our legs would let us. There is no AC in the rooms. On a hot afternoon where temperatures were in the 90’s it was tough covering what we did. Not adding too many pictures of the artifacts save for a very special diamond! You can see the entire experience in the video highlight reel..

After this the tour was done. We could disperse when we wanted. So we took an Uber from the main road and went to the Galata Tower. This was one attraction that was on the other side of the bridge. Once we reached the tower, the crowd was overwhelming. The line to go up the tower was more than 500 people. So we decided to skip going up. We saw a nice rooftop restaurant right next to the tower and had some snacks while enjoying the views of the tower and Istanbul.

Once done we had a tough time finding an uber back (this place is extremely crowded). You are better off walking out a few blocks to get the Uber. We made it back in time to the hotel for another change of clothes. We had an hour to take another long ride to go on our last adventure for the day!

That one alone has 250 photos.. so might be a few days before I edit them all and post..

Twelve years later

Traditionally south Indian brahmins do three things when the kid turns one.

1. Tonsure kids head

2. Pierce ears

3. A ceremony to pray for the kids long life that coincides with both.

When Jr. turned one, we had a cermony at home to pray for her long life. It was a quiet ceremony as it was done in the US with a priest and close relatives only.. on a weekday morning. Well, that last part explains everything else. 

We were told by the local barber shop that "tonsuring" was not legal in the US for one year olds, so we did the tonsuring two months early in India. The ceremony happened on her birthday per the Tamil calendar and that left the ear piercing. It was again a muted affair at the local Claire's in Vallco mall at almost mall closing time. It wasn't all that muted because Jr. let out a scream that could have registered a 2.2 on the Richter scale. A few minutes later, she was her usual self.. 

It was not easy digging up those old pictures. They were in a Maxtor drive that could be opened with an "old PC".. Spent an hour just to get the pics with some bigtime help from Jr.

Today, 12 1/2 years later, we went to another Claire's at another mall to get her a second set of earrings. Given mommy has three in each ear, Jr. has been clamoring for another set since she was ten. We told her she can get it when she turns thirteen. That was many months ago, but we kept pushing it back for no big reason.

Unlike the first one, this was a two minute deal ! The collage says it all...

Apparently that bear is called the Claire-bear.. we don't remember having access to that thing 12 years ago!

Jr. is happy camper for now.

The third set of earrings will have to wait...