Day 18 - Doi Suthep and Hill Tribe Village

Entrance to Chiang Mai's Old City

Flower Market...gorgeous!

Feeling comfy in the Textile market

Delish lunch of curry, spring rolls and rice!

After lunch we booked ourselves on an afternoon trip up to the Hill Tribe Village and Doi Suthep, a mountain outside of Chiang Mai that also has a gorgeous Wat, the Phrathat Doi Suthep!  We rode in the mini-bus around town picking up other tourista's and after 20 minutes of windy switchbacks we arrived.  There were at least 50 tour buses, 15 minibuses and tuk-tuks and thousands of people milling around.  We continued onto the entrance to the village and hopped out; then climbed up to at least 50 steps through markets and homes and chicken coops to get to the Hmong Hill Tribe Village.

Footloose and fancy-free chicks

The Hilltribe Museum was pretty disappointing; but there were lots of children in costume (that they hastily changed into) offering pictures for 50 baht...

We meandered our way out of the Museum and eventually found the Hill Tribe garden, where they apparently still grow opium and marijuana...despite both drugs being illegal the tribes can still grow them for cultural reasons.

Up pretty high on the mountain...about 1,676 m tall!

Elephant statue at the top of the garden

Koi Pond!

Sweet Kitty guarding the trinkets

We met back up with the group and drove back down to the Wat; our guide encouraged us to spend a few USD to take the tramway saying "so many stairs!"...but literally two minutes after we had stepped into the tram we were already there...no view included.

The Creation of Doi Suthep

A monk named Sumanathera had a dream; in a vision he was told to go look for a relic. Sumanathera found a bone, which many claim was actually Buddha's shoulder bone. The relic displayed magical powers; it glowed, it could vanish, move itself and replicate itself. Sumanathera took the relic to King Nu Naone of the Lanna Kingdom. The relic apparently split in two, one piece was the same size, the other was smaller than the original. The smaller piece of the relic was enshrined at a temple in Suandok. The other piece was placed by the King on the back of a White Elephant (which is considered sacred) which was released in the jungle. The elephant is said to have climbed up Doi Suthep, at the time called Doi Aoy Chang (Sugar Elephant Mountain) and trumpeted three times before dying at the site. It was interpreted as a sign and King Nu Naone ordered the construction of a temple at the site.

Relics at the entrance to the Wat

The best kind of Buddha

Temple-chic!

Cute Monk statue!

Spectacular View of Chiang Mai

Replica of the Emerald Buddha

It definitely felt like a sacred place compared to other temples...

After about 30 minutes we met back up with our group and trekked back down to the van for the drive back to Chiang Mai.  By the time we got back it was dark out and so we rested in our hotel for a few hours before we tried out a fairly well rated Italian restaurant.

I must not have taken any pics of our dinner but it was really nice, the chef/owner (from Italy) came over and chatted with us, we ordered a pesto pasta and a mushroom pizza with a half liter of red wine which all went down ridiculously well.  After dinner we tried to find a few well-rated bars/pubs but once we got there they were all empty or playing terrible music.