Just go, C!
I'm Charity, a proud auntie, wine lover, semi-nerd, and dreamer who can't stay in one place for too long.
Oh "mai" goodness, did I have fun in Chiang Mai! Those of you who are lucky enough to follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram were completely inundated with photos of my weekend excursion to this beautiful city, the 2nd largest in Thailand. Chiang Mai is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Southeast Asia, and for good reason. Here, you have a wonderful mix of Western creature comforts that all of us "farangs" (foreigners) love, plus a taste of the unique culture of northern Thailand. Sprinkle in what seems like a billion temples, and you've got an absolute tourist haven. Living in Tak, I have the advantage of being near a hub for many of the bus routes throughout the country. Normally, the bus station here is pretty quiet, but apparently everyone and their aunt's cousin decided to venture out for the weekend and I was barely able to squeeze into a bus with a few of my farang teacher friends. Quite literally, we sat on the floor at the back of the bus. Let's just say that my ass now knows first-hand (or first-ass?) that the roads in Thailand could use a little work. I stayed in a hostel called Muan Hostel which I would highly recommend to other visitors. It was modern, very clean, and the staff spoke English very well. They have an all-female dorm with a "cubby" feel for the beds with curtains you can close for extra privacy. The price was a little higher than some of the others in the city at about 400 baht (about $12 USD) per night, but I was literally across the street from the Tha Pae gate which made it incredibly easy to wander around the historic center of Chiang Mai, and it's also the starting point for the Sunday Night Walking Street Market. After breakfast on Saturday, I wandered through some of the side streets in the Old City and walked into a couple of used book stores. There are several bookstores scattered throughout the city for anyone who needs their book fix! It is pretty difficult to find books in English outside of the bigger cities. My next stop was at Wat Chedi Luang. I didn't see the massive pagoda (or chedi) at first so when I did see it, it totally hit me like a Keanu Reeves "Woah!" moment. I took several pictures but it's definitely someplace you'd need to see in person to fully appreciate. Efforts have been made to restore the ruins, but no one has reconstructed the spire because no one is really sure what it looked like way back when. Additionally, no one is certain of how it was destroyed initially. Some speculate there was an earthquake in the 16th century; others suspect that cannons could have destroyed it during the attempt to reclaim Chiang Mai from the Burmese in the late 18th century. The chedi was originially built in 1441. It used to be the home of the Emerald Buddha (now housed in Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok). Elsewhere on the compound were other beautiful temples and architecture, and a reminder of the struggle of women in some parts of the world (red sign): After Wat Chedi Luang, I headed over to Wat Phra Singh, which loosely means "temple of the Lion Buddha." There were many Thai people here praying and making merit, most likely due to the fact that it was the weekend of the Buddhist religious holiday Asalha Bucha, which Buddhists celebrate as the anniversary of Lord Buddha's first sermon over 2,500 years ago. The skies were getting dark and cloudy with the impending rain, which made for a beautiful backdrop to the gold chedis and temples. Later in the day, I visited Wat Suan Dok, which was a much further walk away from the historic center of the city than I was aware, so I made a pit stop at a local coffee shop to take a break. Fortunately, the temple was only just around the corner once I realized where I was. Ha! Wat Suan Dok is most notable for its white mausoleums which house the ashes of the members of the Chiang Mai Royal Family. I capped off the day by taking a hard-earned nap back at the hostel then heading over to the Night Bazaar to get my fill of "shopping" - and when I say "shopping," I mean I look a lot and don't buy anything. Stuff costs money, and memories are free! Sunday, I got to hang out with one of my hostel roommates. Her name was Megan and she was from Taiwan. We were both casually chatting about our plans and it happened that we both wanted to see Wat Doi Suthep, so we decided to go together. Normally I consider myself a lone wolf of sorts and I often prefer to do things solo, but I will admit that it was really nice to have the company and it ended up saving us both some money on transportation. One of my favorite things about traveling is meeting people from all over the world that you just "do stuff" with. Hard to believe that I would have never met some of the people I've been able to meet if I'd never taken the leap to travel. Before Doi Suthep, we stopped by Wat U Mong which is a 13th century temple located just outside the city, surrounded by beautiful lush forests. Wat U Mong loosely means "temple of the tunnels" and it was fascinating to imagine monks humbly walking through the tunnels and meditating in silence. The temple also has an interesting backstory - supposedly, it was built for a monk named Thera Jan, who has a bit of a reputation in modern times for being a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs back in the day. But the king at the time, King Mengrai, regularly consulted him. One of the theories states that King Mengrai wanted to accommodate Thera Jan by giving him a place of silent solitude where he could meditate, and thereby the tunnels were built. Other (more entertaining) reasons indicate that they were built as sort of a maze to keep Thera Jan from wandering off in a moment of madness. I like to think that both theories are true. Our next destination, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, had an even more legendary tale behind it. This, according to sacred-destinations.com, is the story of how it all began: "According to legend, a magical relic multiplied itself just before it was enshrined at Wat Suan Dok in Chiang Mai. A suitable place therefore had to be found to shelter the new relic. Unable to decide on the site, the king placed the relic in a portal shrine on the back of a white elephant and waited to see where the animal would take it. Eventually, the elephant walked up to the top of Doi Suthep mountain, trumpeted three times, turned around three times, knelt down, and died. The temple was immediately built on the miraculously-chosen site." Doesn't get any more legendary than that, eh? If I ever climb up a mountain and die (a likely scenario if I were to climb a mountain), then I hope someone builds a shrine for me. Because I f-ing deserved it. The temple is accessed via a 300 step all-uphill staircase. My dear friend Megan told me that her knees weren't faring well as of late so we opted to take the elevator up, instead. I totally would have gone up the stairs otherwise. No, really. Ahem. The higher elevation gave us a much-welcomed reprieve from the hot and sticky Thai climate. The views were beautiful; the entire city of Chiang Mai was visible. The compound was really lovely, decorated with flowers - although fake, they provided some nice pops of color. The gold chedi was really stunning. I would be remiss if I didn't mention my obsession with the delicious dish known as Khao Soi. This dish is uniquely northern Thai with a Burmese influence. The base of Khao Soi is a coconut curry soup, and it typically comes with boiled egg noodles and a topping of crispy egg noodles. The dishes I had contained a couple of chicken drumsticks. It's also garnished with lime, shallots, and pickled greens. It's absolutely delicious and I ate it at least 3 times while I was in Chiang Mai. As the sun was setting in Chiang Mai, I headed with my farang teacher friends to the Sunday Night Walking Street Market. The market ran from one end of the Old City to the other. It got crowded very quickly. Everything you could possibly imagine was at this market - clothing, hand-made jewelry, toys, soaps, musical instruments, street performers, and of course, food food FOOOOOOD. I found shelter from the swarms of people in a tent where I paid less than $10 USD for a 1.5 hour foot massage. Hell. Yes. I think I'm still sore from that, actually. The Thais don't F around when it comes to massages.
All in all, it was an incredibly memorable weekend and I am hopeful that I can come back for another visit before I leave Thailand. There is just too much to see and do there for just one visit. Please add Chiang Mai to your must-see list whenever you visit Thailand!
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AuthorHi! I'm Charity. I'm from Omaha, Nebraska, USA. I quit my job in October 2016 to travel the world. Archives
June 2022
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