Thank you to all for the great info. We are traveling to Chiang Mai, 1st time to thailand, and we do not no if Thailand has a western week (ex. limited hours on Sat. and Sun.), or are the weekends just the same? Also, has anyone heard of a monkey training center near Chiang Mai. Thank you very much.

Have not heard of monkey training but elephant conservation and training 70km from Chiang Mai. See www.changthai.com. Other posters on fodors have had a wonderful experience there. We have already booked for a homestay there this summer.

generally stores, etc are open all the time with some stated hours....sat and sun are often just regular working days...it really depends on which shop, etc....its a go go society geared to the customer and making money...

always best to check on individual places before going there

Thank you very much. We are really looking forward to going and have booked Poon for a day to help get adjusted to Thailand.

We were in Chiang Mai last week and went to the Monkey Training School after our elephant/oxen/river rafting trip. The Monkey School is 200 Baht/person. The small monkey (8 months old, not in chains) jumped on my granddaughter's back, opened the zipper on her backpack and dug in - very entertaining. Some of the show was sort of depressing... Most of the monkeys are confined and don't look too happy about being there. There was a show where they demonstrated how they teach the monkeys to pick coconuts. The elephant trek and the monkey school are not too far apart (at least a couple of hours away from Chiang Mai). We used a wonderful guide in Chiang Mai, Joe, he speaks very good English, very friendly, laid back. We thought his prices were very reasonable. I will look up his e-mail if you are interested. There is a fabulous weekend market in Chiang Mai, mostly local people, and huge. We had a great 1/2 hour foot massage for 60 baht/person. Don't miss the cooking school in Chiang Mai, 990 baht/person, 10am to 4pm, learned 6 Thai dishes, great fun... more info if you want...

Pat

Pat, Please do post Joe's e-mail address & also a cell phone # for him if you have it. Thanks. Also, Where is the week-end market?

Joe's e-mail address is [email protected] and his cell phone is 01-6716063. There is a picture of Joe and his wife and pricing on his web site www.infothai.com/mgh. He is the one with the long hair!!! He and his wife are both graudates from a University in Bangkok. He is really good about responding to e-mails. You can customize trips with him. He has a nice Toyota wagon-type car, very clean and comfortable. He is a very conservative and safe driver. If you e-mail or talk to him, please tell him that Rick, Pat, and Nikki say hello.

The weekend market is within walking distance from the cooking school, right downtown near the moat. It is huge, blocks and blocks of stalls, ask anyone and they will know.

Thank you Pat_Rick. We want to Thank you for being honest about the monkey camp. We were afraid that the animals were not being treated the best. We are huge animal lovers and would not enjoy that at all. Where did you get the 1/2 hr. foot massage? Do you know where to get traditional Thai massage? My wife and I are interested. We will be in Chaing Mai in late February and are trying to plan some things.

Michael, we did the 1/2 hour foot massage at the weekend market, right on the street. They wash your feet first, then give you the massage - there are plenty of places that do this. It was wonderful after walking the market. We did the full body massage at the Red Elephant Massage (500B for two hours, I heard that for 100B more, they will go to your hotel), don't know where it was located, Joe took us there. Red Elephant is Chang (elephant) Dang (red) in Thai. In Chiang Mai we found that you really need a guide/driver if you want to venture out of the main downtown area, it is not easy to get around on your own. There are a bunch of interesting factories to see (make sure to see the umbrella factory with artists who will paint on your camera case/backpack for tip money) but the factories are one or two kilometers apart, not really walkable if you want to see more than two. We had 8 massages in Thailand over a two week period, not a bad one among them. For the full body massage, you have to change into pajamas that were provided. For the foot massage, make sure you wear loose pants so they can be raised above your knees. If you give me your e-mail address, I have some pictures of the Monkey School and massage places I can sent you if you are interested.

Thank you Pat_Rick. Yes, we would like to see the pictues. How did you go about arranging massages? Did you set up appointments?, walk-in?, were they arranged by your hotel? My email address is [email protected] Thanks again for your help!

Michael,
In Bangkok - The massage places are all over town, almost one in every block. We just walked in and never had any problem to get massages for 3. We went to 4 different places, they are all quite decent, the best one however, is the one upstairs from the Gallery Cafe (around the corner from Royal Orchid Sheraton). The place was spotless, dim light with soft music playing in the background, great massages too. They charge 350B for one hour and 600B for two hours of Thai massage. Oil massages cost twice as much.
In Chiang Mai - Joe took us to Red Elephant three times, never had to make appointments. The place is huge, many rooms and masseuses. Poon might know where it is, if not, you can give Joe a call to ask him even if you are not using him as a guide, he is super nice and speaks excellent English.
Anything you arrange through a hotel will cost more (I think).
Pictures coming your way soon.