Doi Suthep - The Temple in the Hills
31st August, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Yesterday we had a brief, quickly aborted attempt at getting to a temple outside of Chiang Mai's centre known as Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. Today the rain was absent but still we never quite knew for sure if that might change - the sky was a blanket of grey and the hills were barely visible through the mist. Thankfully, though, we managed to power the moped all the way up the hillside road to the peak of Doi Suthep (1676m up) with no sign of rain. It was a very enjoyable ride up there, actually - just us and the open road with all its twists and turns, and the higher we got, the cooler it was. We had heard that some mopeds would have difficulty getting up there, but our little rental behaved itself impeccably.
Arriving at the entrance to the temple (the Wat), we were once more confronted with the usual selection of hawkers trying to sell us 'paintings' (they were anything but painted!) and the stray dogs that were completely fearless where traffic was concerned.
A dog sleeps in the road, bothered by no mopeds, tuk-tuks or coaches that
drive past.
To get to the Wat, first there is the small matter of climbing some stairs - all 306 of the Naga Stairs. Trust me, this is a tiring climb, and the local youngsters are more than ready to take advantage of people taking a rest on the way:
These kiddies must have aching faces at the end of a long day of posing
with tourists.
Inside the Wat are a number of golden statues, monuments and shrines. And bells. Lots of bells! Above the rows of bells are red signs that state in English and Thai 'Please do not push the bells'. Thais don't appreciate people shouting or generally being loud, they find it embarrassing, and in a quiet place of worship this is especially the case. So, there we were watching a family of four walking down the line of bells each one of them banging each and every bell on the way; they couldn't have got it more wrong if they tried! The Wat has an outer courtyard and an inner courtyard, and inside the inner courtyard is the Stupa Pagoda, otherwise known as the Golden Chedi. Typically, this amazing feature - a 79 foot tall pagoda covered with engraved gold plates - was undergoing restoration and was surrounded in scaffolding. Even in this state, though, the Golden Chedi was an amazing site to behold.
The Golden Chedai, Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep.
Buddhists making offerings inside the inner courtyard at Wat Phrathat Doi
Suthep.
After spending about an hour and a half at the Wat, we headed back down the hill towards the city, stopping on the way at the Chiang Mai Zoo. The entrance fee is not expensive - just 30 Baht per person (roughly 40 pence). Not too steep, eh? Well, the same can't be said about the pathways around the zoo. Very shortly after entering the zoo, the combination of very steep pathways, humid jungle-like environment and heat got to us. We did one brief loop of one circuit then headed off, missing out maybe 75% of what the zoo had to offer. We could go back another day when we felt less tired and when it was a little cooler (heck, at that price we could go every day if we felt like it!).
An overloaded moped that we spotted on the way to Central shopping centre.
On the way back to the hotel, we took a brief detour to a shopping centre called Central. It was a real challenge just trying to find out where we should park the moped but eventually we found the spot. The question would be whether we could find the moped again later, given the hundreds of similar mopeds parked there. Manda picked up a new long-sleeved top while I picked up an obviously suspect copy of Spiderman 2 on DVD.
The funniest thing about this particular shopping trip was how many people tried to talk to Manda in Thai. They all thought she was a local (and by implication probably thought that I was only in Thailand for the women!) and would start long rambling conversations with her at the sales desk. There is not a specific Thai look, so it's understandable: some Thais look Chinese, others have darker skin (almost Indian-looking) and many others could pass as Japanese. The trouble was that we both know so little Thai language that we couldn't even pitch in, stop them in their tracks and tell them she's not Thai and as a result understands not a single word! We do have a phrase book, and I recently downloaded a Thai language course (just 30 minutes - lesson 1 of 10) so we're gonna try to get a bit more up to speed. Either that or we'll get T-shirts that read "I am not Thai" for Manda and "I'm here for your weather, your food and your beer ... not your women" for me ;-)