Chiang Mai: My Kind Of Town

Our last full day in Chiang Mai, we had a free morning.  A bunch of the group headed into the old city, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site (Of course, “UNESCO means ‘you must go!’”).

Bun gave us a map and suggested going to certain temples.  Carol found a self-guided walking tour online. We didn’t do either, but we used parts of both plans.  We ended up going into at least six different temples (maybe seven), including some smaller ones that weren’t mentioned on the map or in the walking tour.

Some of the group ran out of gas after a while, but I was loving it.  Whether it is cathedrals, castles, palaces, or temples, looking at stuff older than the United States will never not be interesting to me. 

(As an aside, it’s interesting that Buddhists claim Buddhism is not a religion, and yet there are prayers, temples, and other sorts of religious similarities.  I’m not sure I buy the claim that it’s not a religion.)

Although there are big differences between the cathedrals and old churches of Europe and the Buddhist temples of Southeast Asia, there are similarities as well.  For example, both consist of impressive structures with amazing artwork and design.

Among the temples we hit were Wat Chiang Man, Wat Lokmoee, and, well, a bunch of others.  I ended up being the leader of the group, mostly because my GPS worked.  Looking for the famous temple dedicated to horses, the Wat Khuan Khama temple, we went to one temple just on the other side of the old city moat, as indicated on the map, but it wasn’t it.  However, that “wrong” temple was black and white on the outside, creating its own kind of beauty.

Carol had spotted the horse temple first.  It was on the inside of the moat (the moat separates Old Town Chiang Mai from well, NQAOTCMT (Not Quite As Old Town Chiang Mai Thailand). 

(Editor: I’m betting NQAOTCMT is NOT the actual name.  Writer: Whoa – for once you got it right!  Editor: The snark is annoying, but since you spelled “whoa” correctly unlike all the youngsters today who spell it wrong, I’ll let the snark go.) 

I loved going into all of the random temples, large or small, but I heard some grumbles from others that they had seen more than enough temples for one morning in Chiang Mai.  It was lunch time, so I led the group to a nearby highly-rated restaurant.  

Alas it was closed for the week.  And by closed, I mean the big gate was locked, and the place looked abandoned.  Thankfully there was a sign on the front saying it was closed for the week, or I would have thought it about a day away from falling to pieces.

My trusty iPhone showed us another place near by, which proved to be quite a pleasant place to break for lunch.  After lunch, we flagged down a tuk tuk to return to the hotel.  (Btw, as I write this, multiple days behind, I can’t even picture the hotel we stayed in!) 

Bun has taught me a lot about Southeast Asia on this trip, but perhaps the most important thing is to negotiate the fare for the trip in advance for a tuk tuk.