Since there are so many temples in Chiang Mai, you really can't go down a street without passing at least one, often two or three. So we grabbed some bikes and went to find the largest in town: Wat Phra Singh. Supposedly the King who founded Chiang Mai lived here while the city was constructed. One foreigner ticket later and we were allowed through the doors. Pretty impressive and especially the smaller temples behind the main one, it's been left pretty much in it's original state and all the walls are intricately painted with day-to-day Lanna life.
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| Some of the painted walls |
As we were leaving we got talking with a local woman (everyone is so friendly up here). She was really nice, and after asking all the usual questions, she started pointing out places to avoid (the tourist traps), places we should go to, where the good local food is found, and also a Wat we should go see that wasn't on our map. After talking to her for 15 minutes we said goodbye and decided to take her advice, so our next stop was Wat Sri Suphan on the outskirts of the city wall.
Wat Sri Suphan was not like any of the others we had seen: modern, decorated with handmade silver panels and still under construction. On one side of the grounds craftsmen artfully produced beautifully intricate scenes from Buddhas life. We talked with some of the craftsmen as they worked - it was fascinating to watch them making the panels that'll end on the temple: they take a big slab of tar, put a sheet of silver over the top and sculpt using blunt nails and hammers. When the panel is finished they peel the silver sheet off the tar, polish it and then attach it to the Wat. After watching these guys for a while we went off to look at what they'd already done. On the way a man came over and started talking to us. Turned out his uncle was the head monk at the temple and he was visiting him. When he asked us where we were from and we replied "New Zealand" his eyes lit up. We'd found a Thai local who knew of New Zealand - his brother works in the Thai embassy in Wellington and he'd just visited! So we had a good chat to him as he showed us around the Wat.
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| The photo doesn't do this any justice, it was beautiful |
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| Part of the inside of the temple all made out of silver |
Remember how I said it had been extremely hot? It was about 41 degrees and humidity was at an all time high. So just as we were starting to leave I decided now was the perfect time to fall ill with heat stroke. I couldn't have waited until after we had left the temple could I? No, as we were walking back to our bikes I started to faint, luckily Jade got me to a seat before I keeled right over. I thought I was OK after a minute, so Jade ran off to get me some water. Then on the pristine sacred temple grounds, in the shade of the Wat, I threw up. Fortunately I was sitting beside a drain, but it was definitely not my finest moment and I certainly got my fair share of dirty looks (as if I wasn't feeling bad enough about the whole situation already!). I'm sure they all thought I was just another hungover farang, so after downing a litre of water we got out of there as fast as we could.
If you're ever in Chiang Mai you should definitely plan to be there on a Sunday so you can go to the walking street market. We've seen our fair share of markets by now but this one was epic. They close off a huge main road and also some surrounding side streets so everyone can set up stalls, selling tons of locally made handy crafts and all your other usual market finds. There's thousands of carved wooden ornaments, handmade children's toys, clothes, lots of artwork, jewellery, bags and souvenirs... if you can't find something you like in the Chiang Mai walking market, there's something wrong with you!
Since the cooking class we had done on Koh Lanta was controlled by the class and we didn't get to cook all the dishes we wanted, we decided to take another class in Chiang Mai. After reading some reviews we settled on Smart Cooks and were picked up the next day ready to cook some yummy local food. We started the day with a short ride to the train station where we took a local train 20 minutes down the line. We got off, hopped on bicycles and cycled through the peaceful countryside, stopping at their farm along the way to pick some ingredients. We hadn't even started cooking yet and this was fun! We were then welcomed to the cooking school with a snack, then got straight into preparing our dishes. We started with our salad or appetiser, mine being Som Tam (papaya salad - seriously delicious!) and Jade decided on a beef salad, we then moved on to soups and stir-frys followed by a curry paste each (green and red, so we can pretty much make anything), a currry and finally a dessert. Such a fun day and we now have a lot of recipes, just hope we can find all the necessary ingredients back home so we can try them again!
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| Picking our Thai basil |
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| Cooking up a storm! |
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| Red, green and yellow curry paste |
After my last encounter with a Wat we decided to head to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, the most famous in Chiang Mai: it sits high up on a mountain overlooking the city and was built around the same time as the city in 1386. Up a mountain where it would be considerably cooler - no chance of fainting this time! So we hired a motorbike and took off through the city, passing the university and started the climb up the mountain. After about an hours drive we had made it to the top - and discovered the Wat was still a few hundreds metres up the hill by foot! You can either take a cable car up to the temple, or walk the stairs. We choose the stairs option and got going, dodging hawker stalls lining the roadside and footpath. 300-plus steps and one more foreigners ticket later, we walked into the temple grounds. We wandered around, watching the locals pay respect to Buddha, placing incense and walking clockwise around the huge gold-plated chedi three time and then headed back down the steps to our motorbike.
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| Made it to the top! |
Jade then had the smart idea that we'd keep going up the hill, as one of the Kings Palaces was only a little further up the road. I'm not sure whether it was the altitude, the steep hill or it had just had enough, but our motorbike started to make a funny noise. Again Jade thinking it would be fine simply kept going. The noises got worse and the bike started losing power. Jade still didn't want to pull over or turn back, so we kept going. Just as we reached the Kings Palace and were about to head through the gates, the motorbike really started to make some interesting noises and started bunny hopping a little. Realising we actually had to get back to the city (not sleep on the side of the road for the night), Jade finally saw sense and turned the motorbike around. As soon as we had descended a few hundred metres, the noises died down, power returned and we headed back down to the city.
On one of our last nights here we thought we'd go out for a couple of drinks and stumbled upon a bar - not your ordinary bar: this wouldn't comply with western health and safety standards! It was a sort of truck deck, minus the cab but still had a motor and steering wheel, a bar running around the outside of the deck, with bar stools consisting of bicycle seats attached around the sides. Nothing to stop you from falling off if you'd had a few too many and the one-and-a-half metre drop to the ground would have hurt. But it was fun and they served decent, cheap cocktails too!
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| Health and safety? Fun times! |
Right next door to the cycle bar was a Thai kickboxing stadium and since everyone at the bar was heading there, we thought we'd follow the crowd and go too. Unfortunately it was for the tourists, as we found out from a French guy we'd befriended at the bar who's brother kick boxed. He tried picking the winning boxer several times, yet the bookie wouldn't accept his bets. Fixed. Oh well, it was still fun to watch but we vowed we'd go to a local game next time - maybe when we went back to Bangkok.
On our last day it was pretty obvious what we had to do, ride elephants of course! After doing a bit of research we settled on Ran Tong Elephant Camp which took you out into the jungle to ride the elephants bare-back, not on one of those little wooden seat things. I don't think I'd ever seen an elephant in real life before, so I had no idea what to expect - I was completely blown away! They were huge! The first one we got to see was a mother and she had her adorable baby with her! We got to feed them bananas which they ate with gusto, before we changed into our sexy elephant trainer clothes. We were then taught the basic mahout commands for controlling the elephants, before climbing up and practising what we'd just been taught. Then it was time for our first ride and since our group was small (thanks low season travel!) we each got to have our own elephant! My elephant was called Moonping and I soon realised she was a very hungry elephant. We couldn't walk more than a few metres before she would stop to pull some leaves from a bush but I really didn't care, it was sooo much fun and such an unreal experience.
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| Baby elephant sooo cute! |
After coming back to camp for lunch it was time for our second ride, this time we were going to a waterfall. Making our way slowly through the jungle I ended up last again as Moonping had to stop every few metres for more leaves, she was obviously still very hungry. When we got to the little waterfall we were given brushes and buckets so we could give our elephants a wash and then it was playtime. One of the handlers got the elephants to shower us in water, pick us up by their trunks, pose with us for photos and at the end we even got a kiss! Although it was more like a vacuum cleaner trying to suck your face off it was still pretty funny. Sadly it was over far too quickly and it was time to head back. This time my elephant handler decided I should ride back on Moonping's head, according to the guy it's more comfortable for them instead of sitting on the elephants neck/back. So I nervously agreed knowing there wasn't much to hold on to and worried I'd kick her in the eye, but I made it back in one piece without falling off! Then it was time for one last round of bananas before we said goodbye to the elephants. The mother elephant was in such a hurry to eat them that she didn't even wait till they were taken out off the plastic bag. Gulp! Down went a bag full of bananas, before anyone had time to stop her. "Doesn't matter, they'll poop it out" we were told.
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| Getting a kiss from an elephant |
We left having had the most fantastic day. It was an amazing experience, something that I'll never forget.
It was time to say goodbye to Chiang Mai. Our next stop: further north, to the city of Chiang Rai.
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