Skating in Chiang Mai

Even though ice hockey is played year round in parts of Canada, skating in 28 degree weather still seems abnormal to me. However, when our friend Shelley arranged a skating date at the Central Festival Mall which just opened three weeks ago here in Chiang Mai, we dutifully signed up. So six of us headed off to the Mall for our experience.

Naturally we had not brought skates with us to Thailand but we were able to rent them at the facility. They really weren’t bad either. The same can’t be said of the ice. The surface had many cracks and even though it had just been flooded, there was not a hint of smooth ice. That, as it turns out, was only a minor hazard to our health. The major danger came from the many first-time skaters, mainly, but not exclusively, Thais, whose enthusiasm outweighed their common sense. Balancing oneself on two narrow blades is not as easy as Canadians make it appear. People were dropping all over the ice surface and, had they done it gracefully, they might have been forgiven. However, such was not the case. In falling, the arms and the legs flew through the air, endangering all who happened to be in the vicinity. At first my instinct was to reach out and try to prevent the fall but I quickly realized the foolhardiness of those actions. So I let them fall. Discretion is the better part of valour.

In truth, it was a lot of fun and the ice surface was actually better than the last one I skated on, the Rideau Canal about four years ago. I loved watching the faces of the Thais who fearlessly attempted to skate and after every spill got up and tried again. If I had fallen just once I’d probably have been taking a trip to the nearest hospital. Ah, the glory of youth. But once again it struck me that the strict safety rules that we take for granted in North America are pretty much ignored in other parts of the world. There were far too many people on the ice for its size, and we only saw one person wearing a protective helmet.

The best line came from one of our friends from Egypt who commented on Facebook: “You Canadians. Finding ice wherever you go in the world.”

Until next time …..