Chiang Mai Dogs

I haven't yet written about the dogs in Chiang Mai. But an experience last night has encouraged me to do so. I was at a gathering of a couple of Elizabeth's friends. As is customary we had all removed our shoes and left them outside the front door in the breezeway. We decided at some point to leave the house in search of dinner. As we did so and the rows of shoes diminished it became quite clear that only one of my shoes remained in the breezeway.

"Uhhhmmm..." I said quietly, "I think I'm missing a shoe." Elizabeth confirmed my suspicions and Laurie, our host, said, "Oh those damn dogs!"

"Don't worry," he reassured me, "my next door neighbor's dogs steal shoes all the time. She'll see it in her yard in the morning and return it." And I was reassured, mostly. Except that it was not yet morning and would not be for quite some time. I was wondering how'd I'd manage with only one shoe until then.

"Don't worry," said Laurie, "You can borrow a pair of mine." Quite nice of him and an almost perfect solution except that he's about six feet tall and probably wears a size 10 shoe. Still, a his pair of size 10 flops beat the heck out of my one size 7 shoe. So I gamely slipped my feet and shuffled towards my motorcycle.

His neighbor did, in fact, under cover of morning return my shoe and I'm happily once again shod in Chiang Mai.

I mention this story for two reasons - the first is that dogs are everywhere in Chiang Mai. I don't think "leash law" is a thought that has occurred to anyone. In fact, it's not clear to me whether most of the dogs actually "belong" to anyone, but somehow they manage and Chiang Mai manages to work with and around them. Clearly some dogs are better cared for than others as Laurie's neighbor seems quite indulgent, but it's not unusual to see a dog crossing the street at his leisure and all of the traffic waiting or weaving patiently.

The other reason I mention this story is an interesting Thai attitude caught in the common phrase, "mai pen rai". There is no direct translation into english, but it's roughly a combination of "don't worry", "nevermind", "it's ok" and "hey, that's life". Laurie seemed totally unphased that my shoe went missing and he assumed that I wouldn't mind much either. Mai pen rai.

And well, he was right.

PS - The dog in this photo is not the dog who absconded with my shoe. That dog did so anonymously and under cover of night. This dog just happened to be a Chiang Mai dog conveniently and photogenically available and the Night Bazaar tonight.