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.

Day 14 Seeing the Bangkok Sights

This morning we slept through our 8:00am alarm and rushed to get ready for the Temples/Palace before it was too hot.  We tried to catch a Tuk Tuk down the road and encountered our first Bangkok scam artist; a driver who enthusiastically (and convincingly) told us that the monks were using the Palace until 11am so he recommended taking us to some other attractions for only 10 baht until the palace re-opened to the public.  

Upon further inquiry he told us that he would have to stop at the tourist info so he could get reimbursed for gasoline as well as stop at a gem shop for us to have a look.  My brain finally woke up and I whispered to Ty that we either had to get out of the Tuk Tuk or haggle harder, that is exactly what "Lonely Planet Thailand" had warned of.  Ty managed to get us a ride to the palace for 80 baht ($3.50USD) and when we got there the Palace was definitely NOT closed to the public.

We paid our entrance fee and melted around the grounds in our "temple outfits", for me black jeans and a sweater over my tanktop and for Ty jeans and a T-shirt.  

Phimanchaisri Gate is the entrance to the Grand Palace...which has been the residence of Kings in Thailand since 1782! 

Sweaty.

Me and Phra Si Ratana Chedi, a 19th-century stupa built in Sri Lankan style enshrining ashes of the Buddha

Replica of Angkor Wat

the back side of the Temple of Emerald Buddha

Ornate detail on the walls of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha

Five-headed dragon foot at the entrance!

Confucius Statue

Palace Guard Procession

I can only imagine these are the shoes of Palace workers...but why only two colors?

Hidden garden that's under construction

We were dying in the 95 degree weather and so were thrilled to get into the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, which had air-conditioning and a very interesting visual display on how to make silk from worms! 

Ministry of Defense 

Patrol

After getting lost trying to get to another set of temples (or Wat's) we got hot-hungry grouchy and grabbed a snack at 7-11 so we could start the walk back towards our hotel in better spirits.  We found lunch at a place called Mango and were surprised to find it was only noon...we had to have beer with our Thai food/breakfast/lunch, we were that drained!

Back at the hotel we showered and pumped the air conditioning, promising ourselves we would have to find better temple outfits at the market later!

Instead of going the market we decided we hadn't quite got enough of the Wat's...we walked down to the river and hopped on a series of ferry boats to get across to Wat Arun, all light up but closed for the night.  There were at least 12 cats wandering the premises and there was a big school of fish chumming right beside the dock.

Wat Arun, named after the Indian god of dawn (Aruna)