what? wat!

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Today we roamed around looking at temples in Chiang Mai - 'wat' is the Thai word for 'temple' and there are hundreds within the city; almost as many as Bangkok, which has 10 times the number of inhabitants. So there are a lot of wats in this city.

Chiang Mai is an unusual city in that remnants of a masonry fortress wall and moat still exist, to protect the ancient city from its Burmese enemies in the 13th century. The city is half-ruin half new development, but still not so modern and technologically advanced as Bangkok. The square-shape of the fortress wall contains the old part of the city, and on it's outer edges and four corners like various night bazaars and markets, and all the bars and nightclubs that make up the city's vibrant nightlife.

The temples are amazing; a mixture of Chinese-influenced modern temples, Cambodian-influened mound-like temples, Myanmar-influenced older style temples that have tiered roofs, and traditional Thai temples with the pointed triangular roofs and dome-shaped 'stupa' (houses the Buddhist shrine/images). All of them have decorative murals on the interiors depicting typical Buddha motifs and assorted Buddhist ceremonies.

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Comments

[Emma]

Pretty!