Chiang Mai is 1750 square kilometers, where Bangkok is on 1500 square kilometers. But Chiang Mai's population is much smaller, being at 2 million people. The inner city of Chiang Mai is separated from the rest of the city by a moat, and city wall.
High rise buildings can not be built in the inner city to maintain the historical integrity of this area. The inner city of Chiang Mai is one square mile. There are several festivals that happen in this region of Chiang Mai that cause it to be very crowded at certain times of the year.
The first is the floating basket ceremony on November 25th and 26th each year. I think that Mike was very relieved that we missed this ceremony since today's journey took us through this very area.
There is another festival in April, where people take water from the moat and splash it on the elderly and people that they respect to give them good wishes. It eventually turns into a free for all with everyone being splashed and blessed and having a good time. They then throw talcum powder on everything and everyone, and everything turns white.
One of the things that Mike mentioned today is how proud he is of the medical care in Thailand. They have state of the art technology and schools but much cheaper than more developed countries.
Our first temple tour today is also the burial ground for some of Thailand's royalty, so our bus discussion was focused on cremations and burials. When someone dies in Thailand, they have two caskets. The inner casket is plain wood, and the out casket is quite elaborate (often with air conditioning in it), which is rented from the temple. Thai people are cremated in the inner casket only. What a great idea! It is so much less wasteful that our burial practices here.
We enjoyed a morning tour of the most interesting temples in Chiang Mai. We started at Wat Suan Dok, where the remains of the Chiang Mai Royal family are enshrined. This was a very beautiful place, and we were able to walk around and look at all of the pagodas. All over Thailand, we have noticed that all of the white buildings and temples often appear dirty. Mike said that this is from the acid rain caused by the pollution in the large cities. They have to be constantly repainted to maintain their beautiful white color.
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| These pagodas have obviously been recently painted |
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| This one is in need of a fresh coat of paint. |
I didn't think to ask Mike how often things have to be repainted, but it is evident on many of the houses as well, that it must be pretty often.
There is a white string that encircled the entire burial ground, this is thought to keep out bad spirits or omens.
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| You can see the white string encircling the burial ground |
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| I have no idea what this says, but the writing is so beautiful! |
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| There was also a huge set of bells by the pagodas. They sounded beautiful! |
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| We all took turns ringing the bells. Look at my sweet husband carrying my backpack and my note pad. He's a keeper! |
The inside of the temple was very ornate and beautiful!
Once we went inside the temple, there were two distinct types of Buddhas, the plain ones are built in Thai style and the very ornate ones are built in Burmese style.
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| The plain gold Buddhas are Thai style, the ornate Buddha's on the outsides are the Burmese Buddhas. |
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| These were the most beautiful love flowers. Most of them were orchids. |
We then continued to Wat Phrathad Doi Suthep, northern Thailand’s most sacred temple, containing a holy relic of their Lord Buddha.
According to the Thai people, these two temples are related, as is told in the following story. A Syrlankan monk presented a relic to the king at the first temple. The king put the relic in a box, but when they reopened the box, the relic was broken in two, so they assumed that the relic wanted to be in two places. They left one piece at the first temple and put the other piece on the back of an elephant. Where the elephant stopped is where they felt the other piece of the relic wanted to be, so they built the second temple at that location, high in the mountains of northern Thailand.
The road up to the second temple was very steep and winding. Buses aren't allow on the road on weekends because it is very busy with cars and bicycles, so since today was Saturday, Mike arranged for us to all be picked up in three 15 passenger vans to drive up the mountain. We were quite impressed by all of the bike riders who were making the ride up this very steep, windy road.
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| You can see that the dragon handrail goes all the way to the top. |
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| It is very ornate and beautiful! |
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| Hill tribe girls stood on the stairway, and would allow you to take pictures of them for a donation |
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| More hill tribe girls, all in different types of dress |
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| Wow, the crowd clears for a quick photo opportunity! |
In this second temple there is a chinese budha. You can tell that it is chinese because it has a very fat stomach this is a trait of prosperity to the Chinese people.
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| Chinese Buddha |
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| There is also an Indian Buddha at the entrance to the temple |
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| The ashes of commoners can be buried in the sacred temples, but the family must pay every year. If the family doesn't pay, the ashes are removed |
As we entered the temple, we were able to pour oil on candles for the day of the week we were born and it is thought to extend your life. Since most Americans don't know what day of the week they were born, we were told to pour oil over all of the candles just to be safe.
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| So many Buddhas, so little time. And we enjoyed seeing everyone of them! |
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| Offerings of marigolds and lotus flowers |
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| And offerings of money as well |
The first temple had a white string around it to protect all inside from bad spirits or omens, so at this temple, each of us had a white string tied around our wrist to keep us safe from these same bad spirits. Later you throw it away and the bad spirits are thrown away with it.
When we left the temple, Steve and I chose to ride the venicular back down, just so we could try one more form of transportation on this trip.
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| There were two veniculars side by side. Here you can see the two sets of tracks |
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| The tracks are completely enclosed in this tunnel |
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| It's a pretty steep ascent up the hill, but hard to capture in a picture |
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| The other vanicular next to us |
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| I love the Thai writing. It is so pretty |
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| Steve and Chris enjoying their vanicular ride |
After our descent down the hill, we were all going to meet at the jade factory, but we ran into Mike on our way, and he knows that Steve and I are adventurous eaters, so he took us on a little side trip
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| Why is this sign even written in English? Are any English speaking people really going to try these? |
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| The worms in the back are 200 baht. That's about $6.00. They must be a delicacy, but not for me! Steve and I could both have a really yummy meal for way less than that! |
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| And these guys are just too appetizing to mention |
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| Okay, maybe were not as adventurous as we'd like to think |
We then visited a local jade factory, followed by an afternoon on our own to enjoy beautiful Chiang Mai.
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| Green coffee beans growing outside the jade factory |
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| Some beautiful pieces for jade |
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| A large jade Buddha, but not as big as the famous Emerald Buddha |
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| There were some beautiful pieces at the jade factory |
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| A jade carver |
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| These rings showed all of the different colors of jade |
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| A Lamborghini carved out of jade |
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| Orchids outside of the jade factory |
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| I'm not sure what this is, but it's really pretty |
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| Red coffee beans outside of the jade factory |
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| Steve and I took a little stroll while everyone was doing their shopping at the jade factory. There was a little food stand with hot oil right on the sidewalk |
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| Jack fruit on someone's porch |
When we finished at the jade shop, we took our vans back down the hill to where our bus was waiting for us, and then headed back to the hotel. We were on our own for lunch, so we, along with several of our friends walked back over to one of the more permanent restaurants in the night market. We weren't sure if they would be open, but when we walked up, the owner was there so we asked if he was open for lunch, and he opened right up for us and made us all a delicious lunch. He was the only one there, so he was the cook, waiter and host for us. It was a great lunch!
We have not had time to see the hotel yet, so after lunch, we took a few minutes to look around.
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| Part of the pool area |
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| And more of the pool area |
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| And more...It's a big pool |
Then tonight we had a huge treat, joining a local Chiang Mai family for an authentic Thai dinner in their home. The woman who owns the house is named Kohn Porn Pun, and her youngest son is Kohn Ja.
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| Our entire tour group (minus Mike, Pong and Yut, our wonderful Gate-1 team) in front of the house |
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| Jess, Gina, Helen, Chris, Me and Steve ready for our big night out |
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| Their yard was absolutely fabulous with flowers, and even kifir lime trees |
Ja, the son, owns 3 restaurants in Chiang Mai, so he gave us a cooking demonstration, by making green curry paste from scratch. If we could get all of the ingredients in the U.S., it would be really fun to try at home. He then used the green curry paste in his green curry with chicken.
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| He started out by going through all of the ingredients in green curry paste, some are common in the U.S. some are not. |
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| Traditionally, a mortar and pestal is used to grind the ingredients for green curry, but some people use a food processor |
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| Doesn't this look good? |
We were then treated to an amazing dinner in the area beneath their house. In a traditional Thai house, the area under the house is often open, with either a concrete or dirt floor. This is the work area for the family during the day.
The area under their house has been converted into a large dining room and kitchen, with restrooms for the guests.
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| This boat was set up for serving the meal. Such a great idea! |
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| The dining room |
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| Preparing to serve the meal, and our gift bags off to the left of the table |
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| Our appetizers, I can't remember what all was in them, but they were delicious! |
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| Enjoying a wonderful dinner with friends |
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| The serving station set up, with our wonderful chef and host overseeing |
We enjoyed a tour of the home, which was built in 1999 out of almost all teak wood. Teak wood is expensive, but requires almost not maintenance. It is the preferred building material in Thailand.
Most Thai houses have a ladder that leads up to the house (which is on stilts) to a gated outdoor area. At night the ladder will be pulled up and the gate will be locked for security purposes. Our hosts house had a permanent staircase, but it did have a gate at the top that could be locked for security.
We enjoyed conversation about life in Chiang Mai and savored the unique flavors of a home-cooked Thai meal with our amazing hosts.
After dinner we were invited on a tour of the house. We climbed the stairs to find ourselves on a big outdoor deck. Surrounding the deck were a series of rooms. The rooms in the upstairs are basically bedrooms, but attached to each bedroom is a sitting area or living room. It is a very neat concept in that most of the upstairs space is outdoors.
When you are on the upstairs deck, you can have your shoes on, but to enter any of the indoor rooms, your shoes must be removed.
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| The entry from the stairs on the front of the house. There are rooms to the right and left, and behind me |
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| The sitting room for one of the bedrooms |
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| The bedroom |
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| The view from the sitting room, back out onto the deck |
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| The entry gate leading to the back stairs |
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| An open railing overlooking the yard below |
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| A view of most of the outdoor deck. It is very big and spacious. Notice the shoes outside the door |
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| This is the Buddha room. Every Buddhist household will have one for praying multiple times a day |
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| Another sitting room for another bedroom. Since the house is elevated it gets nice cool breezes, but a fan is still necessary |
We were then invited outside where we all lit lanterns and released them together to release any bad things that we might have in our lives. This was an amazing farewell dinner as we all said goodbye to each other since we will be leaving for Bangkok tomorrow.
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| Pong (the bus driver) is back behind Steve to help us with our lantern. |
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| Steve, Pong, Gina and Jess getting our lantern ready |
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| Pong lighting our lantern. It immediately starts to lift as the warm air fills it |
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| The first glow of our lantern |
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| After our lantern was lit, Pong took the camera and I replaced him on the lantern |
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| Hard to take a picture of, but the flame inside our lantern |
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| Getting ready to release it |
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| The lanterns slowly drift away with all of our cares and worries. What an emotional way to end this incredible adventure! |
On the way back to the hotel, Mike, our Tour Director, gave the most touching farewell talk to all of us. He has been an incredible guide and friend throughout the last two weeks, and we will miss his wit and humor a lot.
He covered all of our departure information for tomorrow and the next day, and made sure that we were all comfortable with the plan for the next two days. Steve and I both teared up a little bit as we thought about leaving our wonderful Gate-1 team and our new friends behind. This has been an incredible experience that we have throughly enjoyed!
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