Since we’ve reviewed two hotels over the past couple days, we decided to review one more that we stayed at in Chiang Mai, Thailand. This hotel ranked #1 for hotels in Chiang Mai in TripAdvisor at one point. The odd thing with the reviews is that the good ones all gave it 5 stars and the bad ones were horrendous and only gave it 1 or 2 stars.

Most reviews agreed that it was a bit out of the way, but that was part of the charm, so we booked a few days in the Sira Boutique Hotel, and a few days in The Field Village while we were in Chiang Mai. On the last day of our stay at the Sira Hotel, we mentioned to the owner that we would be staying at the Field Village and he told us it was right near the runway and could get quite noisy but to let him know what we thought.

Beautiful gardens at The Field Village.

Our first impression when we arrived at The Field Village was that the gardens were beautiful and the whole place had a sense of calm and serenity to it. Then we went into our room, or “cabin” as they call it, that’s when we were disappointed. The place looked very cheaply put together (and cost 50% more than Sira Hotel); the door only closed with a padlock or bolt, and there was a big gap under the door that we had to block with a towel to prevent insects from entering. We felt that for what we were paying, there were far better looking units at other hotels.

The door didn’t quite shut properly, leaving a wide gap underneath.

Nevertheless, we decided to give it a try and stay there a bit longer. Since the gardens and pool were so great, we also used them as a backdrop for some of Grace’s forex video blogs.

Here are some of the pros and cons of The Field Village Hotel:

Pros:

• Near the countryside with a view of rice paddies and mountains.
• Beautiful looking pool, lush landscape and lovely flowers.
• The food was quite ok and reasonably priced. Having said that, there were only a handful of dishes available at any given time and most of what was on the menu was just for show.
• Seemed like a good place for people who want to relax. See the noise issue below.

Cons:

• Inconvenient location. You can’t get a taxi from there and have to pay the hotel about US$7 for a ride into town. This is a lot for a place like Chiang Mai where most tuk-tuk rides can be had for a buck or two USD.
• Internet surcharge, yet unreliable connection. We had to pay for internet at this place, even though we emailed beforehand and it was insinuated that it would be included. And worst of all, the internet kept failing and we had to keep asking them to fix it. Each time we did, they seemed annoyed and would tell us how much it cost to get an IT technician over to fix their routers as if it wasn’t their problem.
• Noise from airplanes. Scratch the relaxing part from the pros, unless of course you find it relaxing to hear a plane landing every couple minutes or hear a formation of 5 fighter jets flying overhead.
• Service was definitely lacking. Most of the staff only spoke Thai, and only the owner lady spoke English, many times she seemed annoyed when we asked about things, especially when she was in the middle of a manicure or pedicure. And when she wasn’t getting one of those, she was out shopping so it was hard to ask her anyway.
• Overpriced tours. The tours cost 2 or 3 times more than what they cost in town. It was so bad that we ended up calling the friendly receptionist at the Sira Boutique Hotel and asked her to arrange our tours for us and pick us up at The Field Village. She got a commission for each tour she booked so at least we didn’t feel like we were annoying her
• The units were just not up to standard. The wood used to make them was still rough and many times the screws used to hold the pieces together had ended up splitting the boards. To think that this place was completed only a few months ago. We were almost afraid of leaning on the walls, not that we would anyway since they seemed dirty. The shower was also just a concrete floor with a shower-head above it and it took about half an hour for the hot water to come on, and when it did, it was boiling and only lasted a minute or two.
• Whatever you do, if you stay at this hotel, don’t get the oil/aromatherapy treatment at the spa. It was probably our worst spa treatment ever and we’ve been to a great many around Asia. Why was it bad? Well to start with, the people giving the massages had dirty hands, they also didn’t seem to know how to give a proper massage and just rubbed the oil over us for the two hours we were there. We were so bored we felt like getting up and leaving half way through

While we were staying there, we saw several great reviews posted on Tripadvisor by people who weren’t even staying at the resort (there are only like 10 units and not many were occupied). This, and several other travel experiences have made us believe that Tripadvisor is full of fake comments and pretty useless at helping us find information about places. It seems that Tripadvisor is now full of hotel employees and owners leaving fake comments about their hotels.

While we respect all the people we meet on our travels, we cannot agree with many of the cultural traditions we encounter which cause harm to people. This can be physical or psychological harm, and in many cases it is directed at the weakest members of that cultural group, particularly women and children.One vivid example of these practices are the copper rings which “stretch” the necks of the Karen Long Neck in Burma and Thailand. These copper rings are placed on children as young as 5 who don’t really understand what is happening, and each year they will add one more ring. The result is a grossly elongated neck caused by pushing the shoulder down which causes irreversible damage to the bones of those who do this.

Sure it is their culture, but it is not grown adults choosing to do this to themselves. It is done to helpless children who have no choice and who later must come to terms with it and think it makes them beautiful.

Apart from the cultural aspect of this, it is also now a great money spinner for the tribes, as tourists are shipped in by the bus-load and each bus pays the tribe. So in essence, it is a form of child labor. Most of the people in these tribes don’t have access to a proper education, and many aren’t allowed to leave the tribe because they are illegal immigrants.

In such a closed environment where all the children know is what their uneducated elders tell them, and where the only contact with outsiders comes from bus-loads of tourists with cameras, it is difficult to see that things will change anytime in the future.

A Karen Long-Neck feeding her son

So while we respect the people, we think cultures must evolve and remove aspects which cause harm to their people. Not too long ago it was culturally acceptable for western nations to own slaves and beat their wives. Luckily these things are no longer legal, and we think that other cultural aspects which physically harm others shouldn’t be either.

So you think you’ve got your life insurance under your belt? The Palong tribe do too, literally! The women believe that if they wear a special metallic belt it will make the spirits not want to send them to heaven, thus they won’t die. Think that’s weird? Well they also found it weird we didn’t bother protecting ourself from death by wearing their special belts. They didn’t seem to think seat belts were a good replacement either

See that shiny belt? That’s a primitive form of life insurance! Effective? Doubt it

That’s one of the great things of traveling, seeing all the “strange” traditions people have - from forcing women to wear different color clothes if they’re married or not, stretching their necks, or wearing belts to protect them from death - and just imagine what they must think of us, wearing the clothes we wear and carrying around a camera. Maybe they think it’s a magic omen we use for protection

While many countries continually debate the best age for retirement, usually in the 60-65 range, in some parts of the world people just don’t stop working. Some of the people who don’t are the hill tribes in Thailand, and at the Lisu village we found an 80-year-old hard at work weaving fabric to supplement their meager income from growing corn.

80-Year-Old still hard at work!

PS. by Grace:

This footage was taken when we were in Thailand, we are now in Singapore.

Today it has been raining nonstop, and it has rained in my heart too. My beloved aunt breathed her last and everyone was with her when she went. Life is short, so I hope everyone gets a chance to do what they really want in life.