A slight hitch has occurred in the booking of the boys tickets to Thailand. I picked up an email this morning to say that the credit card transaction had been declined! So after a couple of frantic telephone calls to try and sort it out, we realise that because of the time difference we’ll have to sit tight until around 4pm to get hold of the credit card company and the travel agent. In the meantime, we can only hope that the tickets will remain available. We finally get round to booking a two-day trek into the hills to the north and west of Chiang Mai – one of the main reasons for coming here! The trek includes elephant riding and bamboo rafting as well as an overnight stay in a Karen village. In the evening we go to the Old Chiang Mai Cultural Centre for a Khantoke dinner and a performance of Thai classical and Hill Tribe dances.
The pick-up to take us to the Khantoke dinner is late in arriving and we get to the cultural centre just before the performance of Northern Thai classical dance starts in the khuang Hong Kham or outside court. Everyone else seems to be seated and tucking into their Khantoke dinner as we are led to our ‘seats’ – two back rests on the floor. A Khantoke is a pedestal tray used as small dining table by the thai-speaking people of the sticky-rice culture. There are two types of khantoke: the Yuan khantoke, made of teak wood and predomantly used in Northern Thailand; and the Lao khantoke made from bamboo strips and rattan woven together, and used by the people of north-east Thailand, Laos and Sibsong Panna in south China. Some Hill tribe people also adopt the Lao khantokes – so say the notes supplied by the cultural centre which we pick up on the way out! When our khantoke arrives it is lacquered in a deep red and has several meat dishes in small bowls accompanied by baskets of sticky and a bowl of steamed rice. But not to worry, providing a vegetarian option poses no problem at all, and very soon I have several of my own bowls of food arranged on the floor in front of me at no extra charge.
The first performance is of Northern Thai classical dances accompanied by a small ensemble comprising a singer, drums and a Thai teak xylophone. The court has a central performance area around which the audience is seated on the floor. Beyond the floor seating are several lines of tables down either side, presumably the cheap seats for those who prefer more conventional seating. We are pleasantly surprised that this is not a venue catering specifically for coach loads of tourists and that it is well patronised by Thais. Seven short dances are included in the repertoire: The Fingernail Dance (the dancers wear long cone-shaped caps on their fingers), the Sword dance (developed from an ancient martial art and danced with 12 swords), The Silk-reeling dance (derived from the village activity of silk production), The Magic Fowls Dance (part of an ancient tragic opera), The Candle Dance (similar to the Fingernail Dance but is performed holding candles), The Mahn Mui Chiangta Dance (a mixture of Burmese court dance and Thai dance) and the Rumwong or Circle Dance (this involved inviting members of the audience to participate – including Andy!). There is some similarity to the Cambodian style of dance – slow, precise and controlled movements with emphasis placed on hand gestures – although there were no overtly elaborate costumes.
It’s not until we leave the court, thinking that it has been a rather brief evening and perhaps a little disappointing for that, we discover that there is a second performance in a roofed amphitheatre in another part of the centre presenting traditional dances performed by the Lahu, Akha, Lisu, Hmong and Yao Hill tribe peoples. Some of the dances could hardly be classified as dances, so brief and simple are they, but others are very engaging and even humorous, particularly the Kinggala Dance and The Rice Winnowing Dance..
A fascinating and entertaining evening!