THAILAND - Chiang Mai - Part 1

I woke up to a constant ringing on the hotel phone and finally got up to answer it. Moni was here waiting for me in the lobby! I got up and then I heard a knock on the door and she made it! So happy we hugged and she looked very tired. We talked a bit about what happened with her card and all and then she wanted to take a little nap for like 2 hours before we did anything else for the day, which I had a lot planned... WAT WALK! So I went back to bed for like an hour and then did some yoga, which I washed my dirty mat in the shower the previous night. I made some tea and waited till she was ready to get up for breakfast, which was a buffet! Unlimited fresh food! I went to breakfast alone since Moni was still tired. There was so much fresh fruit and eggs in the shape of hearts! I had to have a little of everything. And most importantly nice tasting coffee that wasn't instant... The hotel we stayed at was beautiful, it looked like we were in a forest rather than a big city. After breakfast I went back to the room to wake Moni up and get ready for the day. Once ready she went to get some food at the buffet and I came too. We stuffed our bags full of fresh fruit. We finally left a little later than expected but we decided to walk to the city center which was about 45 minutes walking. The city center was a square mile wall that surrounded all the important wats or temples. On our walk we were looking into antique shops and trying to refuse into the temptation to buy really expensive statues. We saw amazing street food being made left and right and it smelled so good. We walked in a few shops but thankfully didn't buy anything. Once we were about half way to the wall a dog started following us. I named him Hugo. He had a big underbite and a really puffy face like he got stung by a bee, it was hilarious. He followed us for about 20 minutes and loved us petting him. It was sad when he left. We reached the huge brick wall that encased the old city. Walking up to it was a plaza full of pigeons that tourists were paying to feed. Literally hundreds of pigeons that would not get out of your way. Once inside the city we had to walk a little further to reach the first temple/wat. I ripped out a piece of paper from a book I found in a hostel that had the ultimate Wat Walk lined out for Chiang Mai. It showed which temples were worth seeing and had all their history and significance written about them. The first temple was only a few blocks down called Puntao. This was made entirely out of teak wood carved in super high detail. Buddha statues were everywhere inside and behind the main building was the monk's living quarters and there were many young kids training as monks. After seeing the beauty of this wooden structure it was only going to get better. The next temple was Wat Chedi Luang built sometime between 1300 and 1400, but no one knows for sure. It was once home to the sacred emerald Buddha, Thailand's most sacred relic, and stands really tall at 80 meters. It was destroyed in 1500 by either an earthquake or a war, no written records of it though so no one knows for sure. This reduced its height to nearly half the size. I thought it was very interesting that the Thai people have a hard time trying to find the real history of this famous temple. Surrounding the temple was statues of elephants, Buddhas, and tiny wats each packing its own personality. Even though they were small that were covered in detail, and too me the most beautiful paintings. By this time Moni started meditating to all the surrounding Buddhas and I walked around carrying my book of knowledge trying to learn every little bit of history of this temple. Though it only was one temple in the old city there was about 3 pages of history written about it. In most of the temples surrounding were lifelike statues of important monks encased in glass. This looked very weird but interesting at the same time. In this little park area where tables set up under trees that were available for "monk chats". People could wait here and talk to monks about their religion and ask for guidance. For some reason I didn't have the need to do this monk chat because I had no knowledge of the religion in the first place and didn't want to bother them with stupid questions. Moni wanted to but unfortunately there were no monks around to ask. One last building in the same area was the oldest library in Chiang Mai that had lots of old Buddist books and old artifacts. After we finished with this area we sat and ate some of the fruit we stole from the buffet and then walked to our next temple. Wat Phra Singh was one of the top temples to see in the city and was on the far end of the center city. This cost a little money to get in but nothing significant. Inside the gates was a huge main temple with a large Buddha and many people praying. One the ceiling were hanging crystal chandeliers. Around the back of the big building was a golden stupa that shimmered in the sun. There were also some buildings made of wood carvings and paintings of Thai folklore. It also houses the famous image of the lion Buddha. Moni and I separated again and went our own ways. I meditated a little in the main hall to the large Buddha statue. I also found the best bathroom in this place not to be weird or anything. I met up with Moni again to leave and head back. We were a little hungry so decided to get a cold coconut and mango smoothie. My smoothie wasn't too good though since I got it at a cafe and not a street vendor. There was no real mango in it. The walk back to the hotel was around an hour and we were tired and hot. Very very hot. We rested and took a nap since we were still so tired from staying up traveling late last night. We stayed in the room until around 8 when the hotel taxi service had a free ride to the night bazaar. We joined other strangers for the ride to go shopping and get some dinner. We arrived on a very crowded street covered in tents set up with all sorts of stuff being sold. The taxi driver had nice english and talked about the whole market, the only thing was that we need to find a ride back home to the hotel on our own. We all hopped out of the van and went our separate ways. Moni and I had a game plan to not buy anything the first night. Upon entering the main tent full of food and vendors we saw the drag queens dressed in sparkly dresses and flirting with everyone. There was a well known show that tourists go too that is all drag. Moni and I had a hard time resisting buying everything we saw, but we first wanted dinner. It took a while to find the popular food market part of the bazaar, but thanks to me we found our way. It was a tiny area with a drunk person singing karaoke and some people eating, but nothing much. The first stand we came across sold alligator, ostrich, and deer meat. It also displayed a real stuffed alligator. After walking around a bit we decided what to eat. Moni got green curry and I got spring rolls. After eating Moni went back to buy some stuff while I held strong and resisted! We finally grew tired real quickly of all this touristy stuff and being yelled at the locals to buy their product. So we walked back to the hotel in the dark which wasn't too far. Very tired, very sleepy, but definitely satisfied with the adventure we had this day. Tomorrow we would part ways for each of our own adventure for the day.