Chiang Mai enriched our lexicon with
a new set of bad alliteration jokes based on
similar sounds of the English word "what" and
Thai word "wat"
(Buddhist temple). Indeed, the question "What's there to see
in Chiang Mai?" should in all honesty be answered
with "Wats!" because this city is famous for
them. You will see at least one wat per block as you walk around
in the walled city
--
the
old
town
area,
in
the
olden days surrounded by a moat and a city wall. The wall has
by now crumbled into
oblivion, with the exception of a few bricks along the south
side plus several town gates which still stand,
while the moat is present and alive with fountains,
and plays an important role as the water reservoir for swimming
(surprisingly, not prohibited) and Songkran festivities.
Songkran in Chiang Mai is a separate
story already posted here.
Back to our wats: they are a truly beatiful sight to behold, and I hope some of their lovely architecture got reflected in our amateur pictures (see below). Wats are open to non-Buddhists as well as believers, as long as you take off your shoes and do not point your feet at the Buddha images (feet are considered to be unclean in this culture). Some areas of the wats are closed off for everyone but monks, because wats often double as Buddhist monasteries. We saw many wats in our walks around Chiang Mai, and also visited a wat perched on top of the nearby Doi Suthep mountain. You must walk 306 steps up the steep staircase, or else cheat and take the elevator, to approach the temple grounds. The temple is guarded against evil spirits by two enormously long nagas (mythical dragon-snakes with multiple heads) whose bodies run the entire length of the staircase. The curious story of this wat's establishment, proudly related in the leaflets distributed to the visitors, goes like so: once upon a time (15th century I believe), holy relics were being trasported from one location to another wat on a white elephant, revered as a holy good-luck animal in Thailand. Having climbed Doi Suthep, which was not the destination, the elephant died from fatigue, which was taken as a sign to construct a temple on that spot and inter the relics in a golden chedi on the new wat's grounds. I fail to see how any place of worship could be proud of such a history, but apparently the Thais prefer to stick with the truth rather than embellish their past... The golden chedi with four lacework umbrellas around it shines so brightly under noon sun that you have to squint just as you hurry across the courtyard because your bare feet are burning on the hot stones of the pavement. Surrounding the praying areas of the temple are the wat grounds which include large sets of bells (ring them for good luck) and such unexpected attractions as coffee shop and viewpoint which (on a clear day) provides a birds-eye view of Chiang Mai city down below. I fully agree with the concept expressed by this setup: even visiting a temple has to be fun, or "sanuk" as Thais say.
For more fun in Chiang Mai, especially if you have a
kid along, visit the city Zoo. Situated on a
large, green territory with many paths (enough
to give you a several-mile workout before you
decide to take mercy on your feet and hop on
the shuttle), it displays a variety of animal
species, including such large mammals as lions,
tigers, elephants, camels, rhinos and hippos,
and the big-ticket item: Giant Pandas. The pair
of pandas is a recent acquisition, given to the
Zoo by China as a gift for Queen's 60th birthday
(otherwise giant pandas only live in China),
and there's much hype around it. Before we learned
about the existence of these pandas, we used
to be surprised at the disproportionate number
of toy pandas and t-shirts with panda images
in souvenier shops... the oddest token
of affection for the animal has to be the
wind-up stuffed panda jerking around on all
fours to the beat of lambada. Now we realize
that "the Thai-Chinese friendship ambassadors"
have entered the psyche of Thai people, and why
not? They are so very cute.
Above: many wats of Chiang Mai. Below: Wat Doi
Suthep on top of the mountain.
Below: our encounters with the animal kingdom in Chiang Mai, in the zoo and outside it. The lovely white rabbit is Miss Julia, the more courageous pet of Nice Apartment Guesthouse (very nice place indeed!). We were unable to get a picture of Mr. Robert, Julia's gray friend, because he would get scared and run away when we approached him with the camera. The pandas proved to be more photogenic.
Above: splashes of greenery in the heat of Chiang Mai in April. The arrow signs in Thai (left) didn't help us much in finding our way around Huay Kaew waterfall (dried to a trickle in the hot season) at the base of Doi Suthep mountain, but we got a nice hike anyway.
Below: images that didn't fit in any other category. The "ISO 9002" sign above the police station in Chiang Mai (yes, the police is ISO certified!) was deemed worthy of a picture because we have seen a lot of hotels, restaurants and other establishments in Thailand that advertise their ISO 9000-series compliance -- a virtually unknown phenomenon in the United States. Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice used to say... And the dragon was so plain cute that it had to be on this page.
