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Published: March 29th 2009
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Hmong Village
Poppy that has been scratched for opium Day 21
This morning, I was up early to join a tour to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep (the infamouse temple on the hill) and a local hill tribe village. I booked through Journey Adventures as they seemed to be the cheapest around and they also published a very useful map of Chiang Mai that I picked up at the airport, so they seemed somewhat reputable to me. I was pleasantly surprised that we had an English-speaking guide. I had thought I was just paying for transportation. We first went to a hilltribe village of Hmong. It was totally just geared towards tourists with many booths selling local handiwork. We did learn about how opium is made from poppies though. Our guide advised against attempting to bring any poppies home with us. Schapelle Corby I will not be. I bonded well with a middle-aged couple from Australia. The other 2 people in our group were also over the age of 45 so I was the youngest.
Doi Suthep was what I was hoping for, except the gold scaffolding around the giant gold chedi. Took away some of the "awe." There was also a bit of cloud covering that obstructed the view of
Doi Suthep
I'm about to descend the 306 steps to the temple on the hill Chiang Mai from above. I did enjoy exploring on my own though and loved all the glitter of this temple compared to temples seen in Cambodia and Vietnam. I watched a monk sprinkle some type of holy water on some locals too. I opted out of this as i wasn't totally sure what was going on.
On our way back to town, I got dropped off at Wat Phra Singh and checked it out. What I enjoyed about this Wat (thai for temple) was a bunch of Buddhist sayings attached to tress in one of the yards. I spent some time reflecting on these and then crossed the street to a wonderful chocolate shop and indulged with a chocolate cappuccino. This was a short rest until I moved on to Wat Chedi Luang where the centre of the city is and marked by the city pillar. You can read more about these wats
here.
I grabbed some lunch and explored the city some more before having a mini-power nap and hitting the town on my own in the evening. This time I went out with a plan to visit a specific bar but I couldn't find it. I searched for
A tree at Doi Suthep
This is the area where you can overlook Chiang Mai when it's not overcast about half an hour before giving up and just exploring the night bazaar again. There was also a torrential downpour for about 30 minutes so I hid out in the market a tad longer than I had wanted.
I decided to just eat a very late dinner back at the guesthouse but the kitchen had closed early. This left me with the option of walking back where I had just come or eating a 2min noodle package in my room. I will let you choose the way my night ended. It was not glamorous.
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