We
started our morning with breakfast at Rimping Village Hotel and the amazing
staff quickly helped us rent a scooter so that we could achieve our first two
goals of the day 1) exploring Wat Doi Suthep and 2) shopping for beautiful
handmade wood furniture.
We
set out, weaving through traffic much less dense than Bangkok’s vehicular
congestion, left the city, and started climbing Doi (mountain) Suthep. The 10+ kilometers of incline and
curves were intense and the mid-point lookout was beautiful.
Chiang Mai is in Northern Thailand
View of Chiang Mai from about half way up the mountain to Wat Doi Suthep
The
sacred wat (temple) is over 600 years old, and story has it that an elephant
chose the location. The legend is
that a monk told the king to take a miraculous relic to the mountain and
construct a temple. The relic was
strapped to the back of a white elephant, which was allowed to wander until it
selected the site of the wat. The
elephant stopped and died on the spot where the wat now stands.
Once
we parked the scooter, we climbed over 300 steps to reach the wat’s
terrace. Around the terrace are
many shrines with many people making merit (offerings).
There were many monks who were running parts of the wat (and a few nuns too). These monks appeared to be on their own pilgrimages to this sacred place.
I
thought all that we had seen so far was stunning. I was mistaken.
The images above are from the central part of this temple complex. The
relic is enshrined in a golden chedi, which is a stupa or mound that holds a
relic. Again, this was
amazing. Photos don’t capture the
scale or the detail of this sacred
place. The chedi is surrounded by
many shrines (some of which are similar to rooms with altars) and includes many
options for merit making.
The
intricacy of the Lanna architecture was also stunning (note lack of strong word
choice, due to awe-inspiring nature of this experience).
The
sounds of the wat were also beautiful.
The scene is fairly quiet, despite the large number of worshipers and
tourists. The wind rings thousands
of small bells which are hanging from the eaves of the temple buildings. When the bell rings, a prayer is said
for the individual or the intention that is inscribed on the bell.
This
golden umbrella with the chedi in the background is my favorite visual
memory of Wat Doi Suthep.
After
being amazed, it was time to descend the mountain and make our first attempt at
Thai antiquing and furniture shopping.
Our directions were fuzzy, and they landed us at the most amazing
antique complex I have every seen.
If you’ve been to Provenance in Philly, this made Provenance look like a small shop in a strip mall. Golden Triangle Antiques was incredible and induced a desire to have a large house to fill with amazing antique Asian
furniture.
After
visualizing amazing living rooms and bedrooms, we tore ourselves away to
continue to shop for the wall carving that we were hoping to find. As a result of Neil’s expert navigation
and our friend’s instruction, we found a few blocks of furniture shop after
furniture shop.
We
eventually found this piece—just what we were looking for! (Pictured hanging on our living room wall.)
That
night we wandered through the Saturday night market, just south of the wall of
the old city. I have build up my
market endurance, yet I never saw the end of this market despite my best
efforts. We also made a new friend
and enjoyed delicious curry.
On
Sunday we armed ourselves with water, our guide book, and the camera to explore
a few more temples and part of the old city before our afternoon flight back to
Bangkok.
We
started at Wat Phra Singh, which is the city's most popular temple, due to its revered image of Buddha.
Wat
Chedi Luang was our next step. This temple complex felt more like ancient ruins than a working wat because it is built around an enormous crumbling chedi from the 1400s.
Where East meets West--Buddhist prayer scarves next to a bench made with Christmas tiles.
We finished
at Wat Phan Tao. This wat owes its popularity to its beautiful teak wood construction.
We quickly refueled with spring rolls and smoothies, took a tuk-tuk back to our hotel, and headed to the airport...where we started planning our trip back to Chiang Mai.
Yes. Just to the left and the right, those are the walls/fences of the alley through which our tuk-tuk driver took us back to Rimping Village Hotel.
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