Chiang Mai Jan 12-16
This is our final destination in Thailand. We have loved the friendly people and the delicious food and will miss them both. We have particularly become street food junkies. Of all the many night markets we have been to in Thailand, the Sunday night market in Chiang Mai was by far the best for street art and crafts.
We visited several of the many temples – wats – in the old city of Chiang Mai. Our first one was Wat Chedi Luang, which houses the city pillar, with its historic relics. Unlike other wats we had visited, this one had both ancient and modern buildings; parts of it were erected in the 13th century. Also, at the time we were there, the monks were holding an outdoor prayer service.
Next we went to Wat Chiangmun, which is the oldest temple in Chiang Mai. It houses the crystal and marble buddhas.
Then we met Pon, our very friendly tuk tuk driver, who insisted we go outside the Old City to visit Wat Suan Dok, as it was nearing sunset. He insisted it is the most beautiful temple with the sun low in the sky; he was correct. Ii is also the burial ground for many of Chiang Mai’s and Thailand’s royalty.
Our final temple on the day was Wat Pra Singh.
After all the sightseeing, it was time to hit the bar for happy hour.
We had arranged with Pon that he would pick us up the next morning in his car and take us out of the city to the temple high on the hill overlooking Chiang Mai: Wat Prathat Doi Suthep. This is probably the most famous temple in Chiang Mai because legend has it that the elephants carrying the buddha relics chose the spot for their resting place.
Pon then took us to an orchid and butterfly farm
After a delicious buffet lunch at the tiger kingdom, Pon then took us to the Thai factories where jewelry is hand made as well as jade carved and polished. But the factory we liked the best was the silk factory. There they had the worms actually making the silk as well as the women extracting the silk threads, spinning it, dying it and finally weaving the silk materials.
The next day we took a break from touring and spent the day indulging in that quintessential Thai experience perfected like no other: massages! After a day lounging and lapping in the luxuries, we had another quintessential Thai experience and visited an elephant park. We chose one that is a sanctuary in which all 80 current elephant residents are rescue animals as well as their numerous water buffalo, dogs, cats, and horses. We spent the entire day there, including a fantastic vegan buffet Thai lunch.
And for our final day in Thailand, the final quintessential Thai experience: a cooking class. We chose the Baan Organic Farm Thai Cooking School. Phoy picked us up at our hotel and took us and the only other couple in the class (visitors from Argentina) to the local market. There she taught us how to recognize the ingredients that would go into our dishes. She then drove us out to the organic farm where we picked our own fresh herbs. We each individually made 5 dishes: a soup (Eric:Tom Yum; Me: spicy pork), an appetizer (E: fried spring roll; Me: papaya salad), a stir fry (E; chicken basil and chili, Me: Pad See Ew), a curry( both Masaman), and a dessert (E:sticky rice and mango, Me: fried banana). We learned so much, and it was all so delicious!
We are sad to be leaving Thailand, but on to Laos!
Pai Jan 7-11
We travelled north to Pai on the suggestion of Adam and Nikki, who had been prior to joining us in Koh Phi Phi. We stayed in the bungalows they recommended: Paiklangna Cottage. We had our own bungalow.
The only “surprise” was the semi-outside shower.
Pai was exactly what we expected Northern Thailand to be: friendly, rural, and youthful with such delicious food! We spent our time hiking around visiting waterfalls and local villages.
The village of Bann Pam-bok built the Kho-Kuu-So Bridge so the monks in the village could travel to the monastery in all weather, including the rainy season when the rice paddies are completely flooded. The bridge building was an entire community event which took only 3 months to create an 800 meter network of bamboo bridges. Tourist fees to visit help maintain it.
The Santichon Chinese village was originally comprised of refugees fleeing Mao Tse Tung’s China in 1949. Opium became the economic mainstay throughout the second half of the twentieth century. When Thailand cracked down on the opium trade, they helped the descendants still living there convert their crops into tea. The village showcases the traditional Yunanese way of life including dress, cuisine, reproduction traditional clay houses, and trinkets. Tourism as well as tea trade now sustain the 200+ families living there.
Then we drove to the mountain top above the Santichon Village for the view of Pai which is in the distance below.
Our afternoon beer break by the river.
On our final evening in Pai, we realized we had not yet made it up to Wat Phra That Mae Yen – The Temple on the Hill. It had been recommended that we watch the sun set from there.
As the sun was low in the ski, we sprinted up to the top (the stairs seen in the first picture were already about 2/3 of the way up!)
And we made it in time!
Chiang Rai January 5-7
We added Chiang Rai to our itinerary thanks to Phyllis and Jay and were so thrilled that we did. Firstly, we stayed at one the cutest places so far our our trip: Nak Nakara, which is named for Nag, the serpent.
Second, under the heading of better lucky than good, we picked the dates based on logistics of air travel, availabilities, etc., and lucked in to being in Chiang Rai on the exact 2 days of the annual flower festival!!! How lucky are we! There was a smaller festival in town that we ventured out into the first night. The pictures do not even begin to capture the enormity of the event and the beauty of the flowers.
There were 2 stages with live music, one with classic Thai performers, the other with modern artists including hip-hop.
The street food was amazing. We tried at least 5 things we had never tried before, and all were delicious!
The next day we had so much to pack in. First we went to Wat Rung Khun – The White Temple. It is a modern art museum in the style of a Buddhist temple built by artist Chalermchai Kosipipat. Again, the pictures do not even begin to show how amazing this place is. Photos are not allowed inside, where the artist really expresses both his sense of humor and his anger at the corruption of and destruction caused by modern life. Outside is white for purity with glass inlays throughout, shimmering brilliantly in the sun.
The reaching hands in front we are told represent unrestrained desire. We cross from here to the main temple, passing toward eternal bliss by crossing over a bridge that proclaims the way to happiness by forgoing temptation, greed, and desire.
Inside there are pictures with a mix of classic Buddhist stories and modern ones including super heroes, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and the twin towers burning, to name a few. There are several other buildings, again mixing classic and contemporary.
Next we went to Baan Dam – Black House, which is also an art museum in the Buddhist Temple style by a private artist, Thawan Duchanee. It is actually 40 buildings on a several acre property. Both of theses temples/art museums are both revered and reviled by the Thai, depending on one’s point of view. As expected, the Black House has a much darker, death related theme. But it also has functional rooms for living.
Then we visited a tea plantation and had a tea tasting. Yes, believe it or not, I went to a tea tasting.
Then we drove up to the Golden Triangle, which is where Thailand borders both Myanmar and Laos.
The peninsula in the middle is Myanmar; the far coast Laos.
Finally on the day, we made it back to Chiang Rai in time before the sun set to visit the much larger flower festival by the river, again eating our way through the many food stalls surrounding the gardens.
The next morning we found the energy to visit one last temple before leaving Chiang Rai, the Blue Temple.
Bangkok January 2-4
Our first night in Bangkok, after already 10 days in Thailand, we decided to westernize for the night and visited a mall: Terminal 21.
It was an amusing mall because each floor was themed based on a city: women’s clothes in Paris and Tokyo, men’s clothes in London, jewelry in Istanbul, etc. The top floor is Hollywood, which is a multiplex cinema.
Our favorite was San Francisco, which was a giant food court.
We wandered the city a bit.
The next couple of days we did the typical tourist attractions. Having been warned about the traffic in the city, we were proud of ourselves figuring out how to get around with a combination of the sky train and the public water buses.
First he Grand Palace
Wat Pho with the famous reclining Buddha
And then the ferry across to Wat Arun
And finally, another mall, one of the highest class I have ever seen.
And now it is on to Northern Thailand, ahead of the storm!
Jo & Eric's travels 