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Published: March 16th 2005
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NEW ADDITIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today we still had about half the day to actually look around the city itself before we had to head to the train station to go to Bangkok.
Pretty much in Chiang Mai there are two important temples and a museum that one has to visit. But there are also really cute little temples and I like the house architecture there in general also. So it was nice to walk around. It is hot here but somehow it is a different heat than in the other places we have been. You are hot, but you dont feel like there is no way you can take another step. A much more pleasant hot.
So we walked around and looked at the two important temples which were very nice and very different. One of them was almost new, because they probably just restored it. Everything was brightly painted and shiny. there were a lot of different buildings there. I always think of a temple as one building, but in Thailand often there is a whole compound with a number of different buildings some of which are the temple buildings and some are support buildins, for examples one where
monks live. I especially liked the sort of snake like monsters that line the staircases, Nagas. I think they were supposed to be scary. At this temple there were also elephants that were half coming out of the walls, so you could only see a half of them. As we later found out at the museum, elephants and lions are royal and spiritually important animals, that is why they are an important part of this temple. The second Wat was falling apart and almost not at all restored. the only thing they managed to restore at this wat were also elephants. There used to be lots and lots of them running along the top terrace of the Wat, but they wound up restoring only a couple of them. This Wat also contains the geographical center of Chiang Mai where there is a pillar. However, women are not allowed into the building where this pillar stands, so I did not get to see it.
Our final stop was the museum. It was a small but well made museum that told of the history of Chiang Mai and the Lhana people and civilization on which it is based. there were lots
of little things for us to play with like maps that lit up and interactive screens but there was also a bit too much information written down, so we got tired of reading it in the end. The most important thing I found out in the museum is that apparently the peopel who builit believed that a city can have a horoscope which predicts lucky and unlucky times (not days, but more like years) in the life of the city. Also, the horoscope and some other signs help with the exact placing o the city. Supposedly there were 7 lucky signs that told the town planners where to [place it exacty.
After returning to pick up our stuff at the guest house we went to teh train station and got into our train. We had sleeping places, a top and a bottom. There are not compartments but instead a corridor on the side of which are sitting places (becasue the train can also be used as a day train) and a top berth that is put away when not in use. So for those of you in Russia, like our trains, except imagine a train only with platzkarta sleeping
places on both sides. We sat down and spent the first 10 minutes trying to figure out how these seats could possibly convert into sleeping beds. I found the answer in the end and was very proud of myself. the most impressive thing about our ride to Bangkok was that when it came time to go to sleep a man came around whose job it was to make every one's beds. and we really did need his help, it is not pssible to do it yourself. It was amazing how efficient and precise he was while doing it. I had a good time watching him. Flo even asked me whether I was thinking of a career similar to this guy. 😊 We went to sleep not too late, because the train would arrive in Bankok before 7, so we had to get as much sleep as possible. The two Thai guys sittign enxt to us were extremely dissapointed because they hoped that maybe after they offered me beer a 10th time I would finally take them up on their offer. Instead they got the food serving people (you could get a whole dinner served to you) to participate in their
little party. I arrived in Bangkok quite well rested and very happy with our little train ride.
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anonymous
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Thailand is so cool. :D I was born there:P