Wats, Tigers and more Pampering

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Geo: 18.8, 98.98

The breakfast at Rimping village was really nice with both continental and Thai varieties, today we started very early as we were planning to see some temples with Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep being on the top of our list; Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep is a beautiful temple on a mountain near Chiang Mai. The full name of the temple is Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, with Wat meaning temple, the Phrathat meaning the name of the temple and the Doi Suthep being the name of the mountain where the temple is on. Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep is one of the most holy Buddhist sites in Thailand and is a major pilgrimage destination.

We arranged the driver and car from our hotel Rimping village; it was an hour's drive there and going up the windy bends of the mountain. The driver stopped at a viewpoint for us to take some snaps of the view over Chiang Mai, the views were really nice but it was bit hazy in March.

It was a very hot day and temperature was bit cooler on the top, we parked in the car park surrounded by food and clothes stalls, my daughter had worn sleeve less top so we went in search of a scarf and ended up buying ten, they are all very beautiful. There are 309 steps in steep angle to the top of the temple but we did not fancy climbing so we took the lift which was about 10 mins wait.

We walked to the lovely Sala tree, then the beautiful temple with an elaborate Chedi (Monument), 24 meters (79 feet) tall and gold plated from top to bottom. We saw the row of bells and we rang the bells, the views from the temple on a clear day would have been great but we only had hazy views and many people were praying and giving offerings to the monks and the Buddha's, It is the best temple in Chiang mai.

After the mountain temple trip, the driver took us too few temples in old town; it was too hot for us to walk. We saw the ancient Wat Chedi Luang which was once the home of the Emerald Buddha, Thailand's most sacred religious relic, the work was not finished on this pagoda but there has been recent restoration done on this Wat bringing back the naga (water serpent) staircase on each of its faces and wonderful statues of elephants adorning the base. I liked the distinctive architecture of the old antique look of this Wat, I would definitely choose this Wat if you have a short list.

Then we were taken to the Wat lok Molee which was simple with wooden façade, I liked the elephant statues on both the sides on the arcade of the front entrances which was good to take pictures; Inside was really nice with details on ceiling and it was quieter than other Wats.

The Wat Pra Singh is another beautiful Wat, we were lucky as the bus full of tourists left, inside there are Buddha's, flags and history to telling about the wars between Burma and Thailand; making it an interesting place. The Wat is located in central old town, the architecture is really good and my daughter loved the Dragon on the arcade of the front entrance on both the sides and we also spend time in the gardens which were nice. We did have to pay small fee to go inside the Wat.

The Wat Chiang Man has interesting architecture and is much quieter than other Wats so it is much more peaceful at this Wat, we also visited the gardens with beautiful statues.

The Wat Phan Tao is one of the older temples of Chiang Mai and is a wooden building constructed from teak panels set on a stone base. It is one of the few remaining all wooden structures of its sort in Chiang Mai. It has a three tiered roof with golden coloured chofa's (roof finials) shaped as stylized Naga snakes on its roof ends. We liked this Wat as it had lot of character and it is near the Wat Chedi Luang

After seeing so many Wats which started to look the same in the end, we had lunch and arranged with the driver who had picked us up airport to take us to Tiger Kingdom for 800 bhats as my daughter wanted to play with the Tigers.

She decided to play with tigers of three different age groups; Smallest (3 month old cubs), Small (6 months old), and Large (18-24 month old tigers) while I opted to see them in the distance and I could see 3-4 adult tiger closures and the pool. The adult tigers wanted to sleep and they were really bored of people poking around them, the tiger keepers had to poke the tigers to get them up with sticks with green tussle which only excited few tigers. I was very sorry for the tigers, to be rudely woken up when all they wanted to do was sleep; it was hot afternoon, the tigers loved the pool. I was spectator to this for a long time, as my daughter was having a great time playing with tigers and as it was the cubs feeding time, she had the chance to bottle feed them.

The tiger population has decreased considerably so The Tiger Kingdom aims to increase the tiger population through captive breeding as the tigers have been born in captive and fed a special diet of milk and chicken; they tend to be less aggressive than tigers in the wild and adult tigers were very calm. Tourists pay a considerable amount of money to spend around 10-15 minutes with them which goes towards welfare and facilities for the tigers

I took a walk around and I had coconut juice, coffee's, I was pleased that the tigers were not drugged and they were well looked after otherwise I would have not found it ethical. Then we waited for my daughters CD's with the tigers, her big moment, she was so happy and on the journey back, all I heard was my daughter going gaga about the Tigers!!!

We got dropped off in town and then later we headed to the Night bazaar, my daughter bought sandals, dresses, buckles and I bought one printed cotton trousers to wear in the heat. Then it was time for much needed pampering, we had one hour of foot massage and one hour of body massage and we went to our hotel in the Tuk tuk. We had a lovely day in Chiang Mai and my daughter was still excited about the tigers.

Next day we took it easy till twelve, our check out with the hotel; we left our luggage and headed for the massage shop. We had the full works, manicure pedicure, foot massage and body massage, after all the pampering we explored the shops, we would have bought more if we had place in our suitcases. It was precious girlie time together, finally it was time to leave for the airport and our driver was not there on time so the hotel arranged the transfer for us.

At the airport it was time to say goodbye as my daughter was going back to Hong Kong and I was going to Bangkok for a night as my next destination was Mandalay. There are only two straight flights from Chiang Mai to Mandalay which is on Wednesday (Bagan airlines) and Saturday (Asian wings) which were not suitable for me so I had to go via Bangkok.

My journey with Air Asia to Bangkok was fine and I stayed at airport hotel Amari, I had to wait a long time in the queue for the check in and I was given a room at the back so it was a long walk, they were preparing for a wedding so they were busy. This part of building needs some updating, my room looked bit tired but it was fine for one night as it was only 5 mins walk through a walkway to the airport, very convenient.

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