Asia Adventure 2012: Chiang Mai

We enjoyed a leisurely morning in the pools and on the laptops and in no time at all, it was lunch. We stayed at the hotel for lunch and I decided to try the famous Thai mango/sticky rice in coconut milk dessert. It was sooooo delicious!

Chiang Mai is 700 years old. It was originally built with double ramparts and moats surrounding the city, with five entry gates. We entered the city through the Thapae gate. Chiang Mai is well known for the abundance of temples within the city. Wat means temple. While walking about in the old city, we came across several of them; Wat Phantao, Wat Chai Prakiat, Wat Phabong (with residential school), Wat Dubphai, Wat Raiamontean, Wat Chaisriphoom, and a couple of others that were not labelled in English. But really, this was just a drop in the bucket of all the temples in the city.

Clearly I was in need of a long skirt to wear inside the temples, so I purchased a lovely one with purple and orange stripes, that fits neatly in my purse. I also got mesmerized by a card shop where I picked up a few greeting cards for folks back home who may appreciate some words of encouragement.

During our self-guided foot tour of the inner city, we saw a parade of school boys, preceded by a van announcing them on a loud-speaker. Of course, we had no idea of what they were announcing, so we followed them to the end of their route at Wat Phabong where an offering was made at the front of the temple. This temple was also a school and it looked like some students were in residence and some were local. Based on the ages, we presumed they were high school age.

It was quite hot strolling around, but I was determined to get some photos of the rampart and moats, even though we were on the opposite side of the street at rush hour. It took quite an effort to negotiate my way over to the other side of the street, but I finally made it over safely. Greg was having no part of that nonsense, so he stayed put. Locals, of course, just step out and find gaps that don’t seem to exist, wasting no time at all crossing over.

With my photo objective met, we caught a tuk tuk ride back to hotel.

We also took tuk tuks on our dinner outing, past the night markets and along the Ping River at a restaurant called Chez 15. It was quite an experience since the shy and nervous servers were volunteer students. For awhile, we were the only customers, but this was not a reflection of the food quality. It was very good except the fish salad was a bit too spicy. At the jammed-packed restaurant next door to us, there was some very loud live music, which we got to enjoy all the same, and have a conversation at the same time.