Chiang Mai #2: Temples Galore

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I got myself sorted for the next few days, booking all the tours I wanted to do. Some were fully booked, as this is a busy period for the city, and also some businesses are closed for the new year, so they can take a break. I had a coffee at the hotel's cafe, and because I didn't have the money on me to pay for my tours, one of the ladies from the hotel drove me up to the atm on her motorbike, as she was going to Tesco anyway. For breakfast, I consulted the map that the ladies at reception gave me, and settled on a restaurant, which was about a five minute walk away, and in a part of the neighbourhood, I hadn't been to. I found the restaurant, well I actually walked past it on my first attempt to find it, so had to turn back. I ordered a pork omelette for 30 baht. It was delicious and came atop a mound of rice. There were loads of random sauces on the table, so I threw a bit of all of them on to my omelette. I think they were maybe chilli sauce, fish sauce, and soy sauce. I was the only foreigner in the place, everybody else was locals.

I headed into the old city, the walk wasn't too long. I had no specific plan for today, just to wander around and take in the old city, maybe visit the three most popular wats the were marked on my map. However, I didn't end making up it to any of them. The first wat I visited was Wat Rajamontean. It was a pretty big temple, and was built in the Thai Lanna style. King Tilokarat pulled down his palace, Rachamonthean, to create a temple for Mahayana and his clergy. I wandered in through the gates, and took a look around the grounds, they weren't very exciting. Then I entered the main hall, it was pretty big. There were a couple of monks sitting near the entrance. By the altar (?), there was an older monk, who was chatting away to some people, I wondered if they were his friends, or parishioners, and he was giving them advice. Guess I'll never know. I headed up some stairs and entered another hall, which had Buddha in it. The statue of Buddha was casting its shadow on the wall, it looked beautiful, and I just couldn't capture it on my camera properly. Outside to the left of the hall, on the upper floor, there was a large statue of a sitting Buddha, beautiful!

I didn't have to walk far to reach the next temple. It was just along the street. This wat was called Wat Khuankha Ma. This temple has a strong theme of horses running through it, as the first thing I noticed were the small statues of horses that line the walls outside of the temple. At the gates to the temple, there were two large horse statues guarding the entrance. This temple was established in 1492. In the past, horses were very important and used as vehicles for transporting goods. The land was owned by a hostler and after the hostler's horse died, he built a temple there in memory of his horse. The temple was pretty and I enjoyed having a walk around it. It was the first one I saw that had stalls set up in the grounds to sell stuff and a massage school.

The next temple, just a little bit further along the road, enticed me to come in with its sparkly mirrored walls on the outside. Inside the temple was pretty small, and a lot of it was under construction, as they were building a new building, but I really liked the place. It just had a lovely atmosphere and vibe about it. This temple was established in 1476. There a few different statues all gathered together in the middle of the courtyard and I took a look at those. One was some kind of pot with a snake wrapped around it. Very cool, I've never seen anything like it before. This temple is well-known for preserving Lanna artifacts and architecture. It is also famous for astrology. I decided to turn into the city after this temple as I was skirt the edge of the old city. I walked up the next random street I came across.

I was getting a bit thirsty by this point and as it was about midday, I saw this cute little cafe 'Into The Woods', so I headed in there to escape the midday heat and enjoy the air-con. This cafe was gorgeous, one of the walls was covered in a massive mural. It was really cute, like being in a fairy tale. I had a lovely iced coffee, made use of the wi-fi and wrote down the names of the temples I had visited, if I don't write them down I'll get confused and end up visiting the same temples over and over again! Another lovely thing about this cafe, when I asked the lady behind the counter, where the bathroom was, she replied, "It's behind the closet doors." It was like stepping into the wardrobe in 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.'

I headed up the road and came to the Three Kings Monument. The statue is a monument to the establishment of Chiang Mai by King Mangrai, King of Lanna, and his co-founders King Ngam Mueng, King of Phayao, and King Ruang, King of Sukhothai. The monument is surrounded by many museums, but as it was Monday, they were all closed for the day. I will have to get my museum fix another day. I followed the around to the west of the monument. I could see the mountains of Doi Suthep in the background, just gorgeous scenery. While wandering, I came to my next temple, Wat Inthakhin Sadue Muang (that's a mouthful). This is the site where the city pillar 'Inthakhin' formerly was. The temple was built in 1296 by King Mangrai. This temple was pretty busy, there were a lot of tourists inside, me included. One thing I really liked about this temple was the cute little statues outside of one of the halls, they were like cute chubby toddler Buddhas doing the different stances.

I headed east and the next temple I came across was Wat Chai Phrakiat. This temple was first built in ancient times and the buildings that stand there now are new, as the other building eroded over time. I wandered around this temple, which was big and fairly quiet. I really enjoyed looking around the grounds and looking at people's graves, a bit morbid I know, but they were just so pretty. I really like the street art in the old city, too. There are some cool pictures, painted on them. Taking photos of these murals lead me by accident to my next temple. Wat Duang Dee was off down a side street, and I saw someone walking down the street, wondered why, and saw the temple, so went down to take a look. This temple was really, really quite. There was nobody about tourists or monks. There were plenty of dogs though, all lazing, having a nap in the sun. Little is known as bout this temple, including when it was built. Its name means good luck in Thai. It was previously called Wat Ton Mak Nue. This temple was really peaceful and pretty, I loved seeing all the monks' bright orange robes drying in the sun.

The next temple I came across was Wat Panping, and this place was even quieter, there was only me about. There was a really cute monk statue wearing glasses. The last temple I checked out was Wat Umongmahatherchan, what a mouthful, I don't think I can pronounce that without pausing for breath. This temple was quite big and I had a good wander around it. In the grounds there was a tunnel pagoda, and inside the main hall, the artwork on the walls was really cool, loads of snakes and other animals. I really liked this temple, apart from the evil dog that tried to attack me. Rabies alert! I had wandered off, round the back of the back of the temple and as I was heading back toward the entrance/exit, it came running up to me and was barking and growling at me. Luckily, there was a monk nearby, who signaled to me it was okay, but all I could think was that this thing was gonna bite me, and I would die a horrible death from rabies.

I was getting hungry by this point, and I had spied a cute little cafe, so I headed there. It was in a courtyard between a couple of buildings, with some kind of roof to keep the sun off. It was a proper traveller cafe, and the menu was filled with smoothies and salads. I felt liked I needed an injection of fruit and vegetables, so I ordered some kind of mixed fruit smoothie and an egg and tuna salad. The smoothie was lush, very refreshing and the salad was huge! I ended up having to leave some of it, it was so big. It was lovely and fresh though. I liked that they served two different sauces on the side too. Since both my camera was dead and my phone had very little battery left, I decided to head back towards the hotel, as I couldn't a lot more photos. I was in need of a coffee, and I came across a cute little bar/cafe, CMBC. I ordered an americano, that was a mistake, as it ended up with condensed milk in it, I like my black coffee pure, I should have ordered a latte. CMBC was cute, it would be a cool little bar to hang out with friends in.

Back at the hostel, it was fan on, feet washed (they were rotten after all the walking), and I flopped on the bed for a bit. I was tired and had a little nap. When I woke up it was time to head for a massage. I was going to go to the air-conditioned place, but it looked a bit sketch, so I headed to my back up the blind massage place. This also looked a bit sketch, but less sketchier than the other one. It was 130 baht for an hour's Thai massage. The woman at reception could speak a bit English, and asked if I wanted a male or female masseuse. I opted for a female, I was told to go through tho the other room, I was a bit lost, standing there like a spare part, not knowing who was going to massage me. It's not like they could see me, to let me know where to go. It made me realise just how much we take things for granted. The massage was pleasant and not very painful at all. To be honest, I was a bit gutted, as I would have liked it to be a bit more painful, and to have hard some of my joints cracking. I think the lady was a bit sick with cold, so she probably wasn't at her best.

I was in need of dinner by this point, so I decided to head to the Night Stalls to see what I could get. I did a little spot of drug shopping at a pharmacy that I passed. I love Thailand, loads of cheap drugs available, without the need for a prescription, Korea take note. I headed down to the night stalls, I looked at a few of them, not that I could understand what they sold. As I had pretty much reached the end of the stalls, I ordered a small bowl of pork noodles for 30 baht. It was a nice meal, I love all the condiments on the table, and I added a good measure of both vinegar and chilli. The perfect combination of spicy and sour. My belly is definitely too big for a small portion, as I was still feeling a bit hungry after I had finished my noodle soup. Further back up there was a stall selling rotis, so I ordered a chocolate and banana roti for 25 baht. What a bargainous dinner! I grabbed a beer from the Seven Eleven that was 38 baht, more expensive than the noodle soup and roti. I drank my beer and ate my roti, which was delicious back at the hotel.

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Photos

Pork Omlette
Lovely Breakfast

Sauces Galore
I put all of them on my omelette.