Moat Walk!

Today I took it upon myself to do a little sightseeing around the old city of Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is a very walker-friendly city (it's only about 8 km across), and it is very hard to get lost. The city itself is divided into the old city and the new city, and expands from the inside out. The border between the two is a large moat which surrounds what used to be a very imposing brick wall that encircled the city. Think medieval castle with moats and parapets, but around an entire city. So, long story short, if you are ever lost, simply find the moat. Remnants of the wall are still found all around the moat, and the four main gates which provided access to the old city are still standing. In total, it is about a 6 km walk. To give you some scope, here's a map of the city.

Walking around the moat was great because it let me see how the city changes. Starting at Tha Phae, the very touristy part of the city, I made my way towards the more local areas. I began seeing more restaurants, clothing stores, some hair salons. You know, usual neighborhood stores. At the southwest corner of the moat, I came upon a gorgeous public park and began watching some guys who had met up to play some kind of game. One of guys stretching on the side started talking to me and explained the game. It is called Takraw (think taco, but with an r before the o). If you look it up in Wikipedia, it says it's like volleyball, but with your feet. These guys were playing a different version, from what I could tell. There was no net like in volleyball. Instead, as you can see in the video, they all stand in a circle and try and kick, knee, elbow, or head the ball into a net hanging about 15 feet above them. The guy told me they get different points for doing different things. So heading the ball in is 15 points, elbowing is 15, if you kick it through a circle you make with your arms, that's more. I don't remember the entire scoring breakdown, but it extremely elaborate. Oh, and he said they keep score for 40 minutes and whoever has the most, wins. Here's the video:

It was a quintessential Thai game in that the overall objective is to score as many points yourself and win, but you cannot do that without helping out your opponents. You can only score if the ball comes to you from someone else and you knock it in. So any kind of selfish or destructive playing will only hurt your chance to score. It's an oddly harmonious game.

After watching the Takraw game, I made my way north on the west side of the moat. This being the farthest from the tourists, it was the quietest side. On the northern side, I discovered a few electronics stores and stocked up on some stuff I needed. Then, I made my way back down to the Tha Phae gate, hopped on a Songthaew (shared taxi that's actually a pick up truck with two benches and a roof in the bed) and drove back to school. Pictures of my moat walk are on my Picasa page, which if you don't already have bookmarked, you can see here.