What to do with the last day in chiang mai was the topic of discussion when we met up with marie and Sybille. We discussed several options and consulted the good book over some coffee and sandwiches. We thought about visiting the temple that overlooked the city, but due to the 300+ stairs (there is a gondola for the weary) and the windy road, we opted to stay in the city.

Chiang Mai has the best prices for all types of goods found in Thailand in part due to the factories around the city. They have a silk, jewelry, umbrella, and other factories that pump out most of the goods found in the street or in shops. The travel agent offered to take us around to the various factories where we would shop for, hopefully, cheap silk fabric. Little did we know that the jewelry factory was going to be the most fun.

Both my mom and sybille’s mom wanted some thai silk as well as marie and Sybille who also possessed the skill of constructing clothing from fabric. So, we told the travel guide to take us to a cheap cheap silk factory where we could find cheap silk. We are poor backpackers and need cheap silk. Well, she took us to a factory where we walked around the area where they made the silk. The whole process from raising silk worms

, to extracting the fibers, dying the thread, constructing the different designs and colors of the silk fabric took place in the factory. It was amazing to watch the women work.

They used looms and managed way too many threads for me to handle. The place had a very distinct chopping, factory sound. I made a video of it and will post it later. You can hear the noise in the background.

After the short, self-guided tour of the factory, which is not very large, you enter the showroom where you can buy their products. * WPG2 CANNOT LOCATE GALLERY2 ITEM ID 4576 *It was nicely decorated and very grandiose, which was not a good sign. The showroom had very nice raw fabric and had constructed different types clothing out of the fabric. However, the prices were outrageous. They wanted 900 baht (25 USD) for a meter of fabric!

So, we left and told the guide we wanted to go to another cheaper factory. She suggested instead of going to another, to visit the market instead where we would haggle and find cheaper deals since the factory we went to produced the best silk. Since we were going to do that, we decided to go to the next factory, the jewelry factory.

Due to our jadedness about the silk factory and the richness of the jewelry factory, we were not happy about arriving to thais opening our doors and being surrounded by very accommodating thais; they had people who spoke each different language (you speak dutch, French, Japanese, etc. they can communicate). Dee made an off-handed comment, “looks like we are going to face the same prices as the silk place.” So, we grudgingly made our way through the entrance which displayed some very amazing sculptures and jewelry. I was amazed at how intricate the detail was on a wood carving. Unbelievable. We entered the factory and saw work stations where people were making jewelry. Some stations dealt with jade, some made jewelry from gold and some from silver. It was interesting to watch them make the designs. Throughout the trip, we have made the comment that there are some really talented, creative people in Thai on more than one occasion.

This place is probably where I either spoke or thought the comment the most. After seeing the workshop, we entered the showroom. Immediately our wallets cringed and we, more like the women, got nervous about the prices of the jewelry and at the prospective of at least being able to buy one thing. The room was a big square. I wished I could have taken pictures but they didn’t allow cameras. An inner square was partitioned off by enormous aquariums. The one next to the entrance had several sharks in it. Others had fish I had seen in Koh Tao. Everything was a dark wood and it just stank of richness.

As we started looking at the jewelry, I was in awe at the designs of the rings. It is hard to describe, but you do not come here to buy an ordinary ring. Ya know, the simple rock on a band. they had the coolest designs I think I had ever seen. Twisting, carving, stars, ribbons, shapes, colors and tiny gems making a bigger picture all sparkling. I wanted to buy a ring.

We started on the sapphire section since it is dee’s birthstone. We saw some really nice rings and just for shits, we asked the price. We were expecting NY prices, but the price she told us was way below what we had anticipated. Suddenly dee gets really excited and I get excited with her. We can afford this! Sweet!

Dee spent about two hours examining all the rings and picked out several that were very beautiful. The most expensive one had three bands that criss-crossed each other and had rubies, sapphires and diamonds. The rubies and sapphires had been placed on the bands in a way to create a gradient of the color. One side started with a light colored ruby and finished with a darker ruby. It was beautiful, but expensive (1600 USD).

So, I got mom a little something and dee got herself a little something. The ring she picked out was perfect. It looked like my ring (simple two bands connected in intervals with bars). Hers is gold with diamonds halfway around the two bands and on the bars. In the center is a star ruby. The ruby was polished down to a dome shape and when you put light on it, you can see a star shine off the surface. It is really cool and really cheap.

Marie and Sybille also bought some nice rings and all the women left happy. On to the umbrella factory just cause we are curious as to what an umbrella factory looked like.

The umbrella factory was mobbed with people. It was an open air “factory” and you could walk around and see how they made the umbrellas from scratch. We watched people paint intricate designs on umbrellas and once again, we made the comment about Thailand having some really creative people.

Several people offered to paint beautiful butterflies, dragons, creatures, and other things on tiny objects like a cell phone. So I gave our cell phone to the lady and she painted a dragon on it. It was really cool to watch and even cooler to receive it with the design on it.

We left there and had the guide drop us off at a restaurant near the markets in Chiang Mai, which wasn’t far from our hotel. The restaurant was empty and that should have clued us in not to go there, but we were starving and didn’t care. After ordering and waiting a long time for salad, sandwiches and pasta, marie gets up and goes to the kitchen to see what the hell is taking so long. She comes back and warns not to look in the kitchen. It was really dirty. The food wasn’t too bad and we didn’t get sick from it.

We walked to the markets and shopped around for silk and other things. We found some fabric they claimed was silk but Sybille noticed it had polyester in it. We were pissed, but we haggled them down to a cheap price so we didn’t feel too hurt. After walking around a bunch, we were getting tired and so we said good bye to marie and Sybille since they were leaving for Bangkok in a few hours. We made plans to meet up in Bangkok the next day before they left for the islands.

That night we went to the Night Bazaar and haggled and bought so much. It was the last night in cheap land and we took everything we needed and more. We returned to the room exhausted and satisfied. Today had been let’s spoil ourselves with tons of presents because we deserve it!

We packed our bags for our flight to Bangkok for the next day and went to sleep, and so did our wallets.