Last day in Chiang Mai

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Last morning in Chiang Mai...on my own...went to the 'old city' and wandered around various temples on my own. Met a few other fellow solo travelers...that is one thing, when I'm not with the guide...I do meet more people! The temples were amazing...Chiang Mai has over 200...wow - this area sure does have a lot of temples - seems like there's one around every corner! A lot more Europeans traveling - have barely met any Americans. And of course...their vacations are so much longer than ours...3 weeks is the minimum. Have met a lot of French folks, some German and some English. And of course there are a lot of Chinese tourists and also Thai folk from other parts of their country, but I don't end up speaking with any of them...

Anyhow..first temple I wandered across has a beautiful inlaid peacock design above the entry...I think this temple is Wat Pan Tao. It is very close to Wat Chedi Luang which is one of the most important temples in the area. Wat Chedi Luang used to house the Emerald Buddha which is now in Bangkok. Wat Chedi Luang (which seems to have several different possible spellings) was originally built in 1401, destroyed in 1545 in an earthquake, then 're-constructed' - such as was possible, in 1991. It has cool elephants also.

After my wanderings - headed back to the hotel to shower, pack and head to the airport. They seem to want to get you there like two hours early...of course today's flight is international as I'm headed to Luang Prabang in Laos.

One note on the plane ride - it is rainy season, anbd generally I've been super lucky with the weather...just getting to my hotel before major afternoon showers etc, but the plane ride descending into Luang was something. We were in a two propeller plane...maybe 50 people on board. It was STORMING as we approached and the plane was waggling, dipping, dropping...lots of folks were gasping - although there were no extreme adjustments...but plenty enough to cause anxiety. We landed pretty smoothly...and the passengers clapped! Then as we disembarked...it was POURING...and you have to walk outside for maybe 200 feet...they would bring a stack of huge umbrellas out on a cart..and one by one we climbed down, they handed you an open umbrella, and you made your way into the airport. I was wearing black leather sandals - that night when I looked at my feet...the bottoms were black. It took me about 10 minutes of solid scrubbing...the black leather dye came off on my feet and still isn't completely gone!

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Comments

[James]

Hi!
Just catching up on the blog! Glad the trip sounds awesome so far. Loved the temple dogs! Gaby and I say hi from Toronto and we request Thai food on our next visit to SF!

[brother bob]

Love Chang Mai
Looks like you got to see a lot there. So glad you made it there, and with the time being at the hottest - best place to go! looks like you even got the cooler - cloady weather - which is nice - unless it made it more humid! lol! Safe travels - want to read more. Enjoy Loas!