Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai

Five years ago we did a whirlwind three week trip through Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia. We spent most of this time in various places in Southern Thailand and so this time we knew we wanted to head north, to Chiang Mai. We have heard great things about this place and wanted to check it out for ourselves. After some research we decided to book a place in the Old City. Complete with a moat and perimeter wall with large gates, this is a small section of the actual, quite large, city of Chiang Mai. It's quiet, laid back and littered with ex-pats. It's narrow streets and alleys make for picturesque lazy, shaded strolls. The Old City has more than 100 temples, anywhere you go you will see or walk by at least one. We stayed in a basic guest house near Wat Chiang Man, the oldest in the city, dating back to the 13th century. It's clean, well kept and an inviting place just to sit, read a book or just relax. Temples, like European churches, are so frequent that they quickly begin to look the same and lose their enticing nature. So we picked a couple that we'd like to check out: Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep and Wat Chedi Luang, but first, a cooking class!

Wat Chiang Man

Thai food is a luxury, living in a small mountain town. It's a welcomed change from the Mexican or traditional American cuisine that is Truckee. We have two Thai restaurants in Truckee, both delicious. Our first meal, at our hotel in Bangkok, may have been the best of this trip to Thailand. The pad thai was made with a coconut milk gravy, perhaps, whatever it was it was unique and mouthwateringly good. I searched for this throughout Chiang Mai and never again found it to be made quite this way, although I found a close second, and ate here twice. There are two prominent "must do's" in Chiang Mai, a cooking class and visit an elephant rescue. We wanted to do both, but the price for the elephant rescue just wasn't in our current budget. Researching the elephant rescue was enough to deter us from ever riding an elephant, however. We signed up for a full-day cooking class at an organic farm just outside the city. We were picked up at 8:30 and driven to a local market where we learned the difference between sticky rice and jasmine rice as well as different sauces and spices. We bought a fresh coconut water and hopped back in the van for the short drive out to the country.

Local market

We pulled into a beautiful facility of about five separate buildings, all housing their own industrial outdoor kitchens. We were welcomed with cold water and fresh lemongrass tea with free refills before heading out to the small garden to further learn about the fresh ingredients we'd be using in our five course meal. We quickly get to work, making our own curry, spring rolls, soup and dessert. We'd make something and then sit down as a group to enjoy it, this way we didn't get too full and were able to enjoy each course.

Vegetable spring rolls with chili dipping sauce

Tom Kao chicken (chicken in coconut milk soup)

Chicken with cashews and vegetables

Green curry with chicken

Yellow curry with chicken

Mango sticky rice

We had an energetic, happy and funny instructor. We cooked in a super clean, professional kitchen and ate some of the best Thai food around.

Temple Hopping

Jason got the flu and was bedridden for the rest of our time in Chiang Mai. So I headed out with the goal of seeing as many temples as possible while trying to get lost on the back streets. I stumbled upon about ten before coming to the big one, Wat Chedi Luang. There is a nominal entrance fee where a European woman was asking for half of her money back because women were not allowed in one of the temples. She was enraged that women are seen as unclean and therefore not allowed in. She tried her best to get me to side with her but I just let her rant. What I wanted to say was, it's all about perspective. Women are often viewed as unclean at religious sites due to our monthly bleeding. I see it as men's fear and respect for the power that women hold. We bring life. We can also end life. It is because of our power that we are barred, not because of our unworthiness. Men are in these religious sites, trying to find their femaleness, trying to tap into just an ounce of what we inherently hold. When, in college, I learned that some traditional male Jews begin their morning with a prayer which includes the following line, "Blessed are you, Lord, our God, ruler of the universe who has not created me a woman,” I was outraged. This led to me mouthing of at the next Jewish party I attended (my best friend in college was Jewish), where a young woman said, "I don't think men are giving thanks for being male, they are giving thanks that they don't have the immensely powerful responsibilities of being female. They are saying thank you because they acknowledge they would fail at being female." Pay attention the next time your husband, boyfriend or friend boy gets sick, or stubs their toe. Basically they are dying. They simply can't handle it. If they were responsible for having children, the human race would have ceased to exist. I guess god really knew what she was doing.

The chedi

There are a number of buildings here, surrounding the large chedi, or stupa. Several of the small buildings have lifelike monks sitting in glass cases. They are so real looking that I got up as close as possible without leaving a greasy nose mark on the glass. Nope, they are definitely not wax, I think to myself, it's too hot, they'd melt. Could it be that these men have been embalmed? They are so well preserved that I am very nearly convinced that they are just meditating, in a glass box, locked with a deadbolt. It's not creepy. Here, see for yourself.

Embalmed monk

I'm not sure if it's disrespectful to take his picture, but there were no signs asking me not to. I recently asked the Google if these were actual bodies of deceased monks. That Google is so smart, it told me, that yes!, these monks are embalmed. This reminds me of story from when I was working full-time. I assisted many of my clients with preparing an Advanced Directive. One of them brought her boyfriend along. After all the documents had been signed and notarized, he pulled me aside to inform me that he had called around, to the local taxidermists, to get quotes for having her embalmed after she passed. I laughed. He did not. He then added that it's not really legal in the US. He was going to start calling Canada. Still, it wasn't creepy, hanging out with these holy men's bodies, nor did it smell.

Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep

I wasn't willing to pay the fee quoted to me, as a solo passenger, to get up the mountain to this temple. It took me three days, one tour company, one conversation with an ex-pat restaurant owner and a walk nearly around the entire old city to figure out how to get up here affordably. Here's what I did. I walked to the North Gate, where I learned through the internet, there would be others waiting to fill up a songthaew (red pickup truck). This would cost roughly $3, per person, round trip. I got to the North Gate and there was absolutely nothing going on here. So I crossed the street and walked through two other temples.

I was getting frustrated. This was my last chance to see this temple, as we were flying to Laos the next day. I get annoyed when the "easy" button I press every morning malfunctions. So at this point I'm dropping some silent f-bombs. Finally, a songthaew pulls over and offers a reasonable price to take me to the Zoo, where songthaews wait until full before heading up the mountain. We pull up, I sit down, order a thai coffee, chat with a nice Thai man who is also heading up. About 45 minutes later we are a group of 10 and ready to go. From here it's like a $1 to get up the mountain.

It was totally worth the effort. Not because the views are spectacular, but because the temples and buildings are just so different from all the other's I've seen. There are plenty of food, souvenir and drink vendors here. I buy a water and head up the 300 plus, dragon lined steps.

Stairs leading to Doi Suthep

In all honesty, I spend more time up here reading my book (The Agony and The Ecstasy that we bought in Florence and I've been reading ever since) in a shaded park behind the roadside food vendors. Temples are nice, especially this one, but again, you've seen one, you've seen them all. That's not a negative nilly comment, it's scientifically based fact. Here are some more pictures for your enjoyment, or to feed your boredom.

This is not an embalmed monk. It's a statue.

Now that I have infiltrated you with pictures of statues, rather than structures, I realize that if you want to see the actual temples, you must come to Thailand and witness them firsthand.

Let's get real. We came to Thailand to drink fresh fruit juices and smoothies. We came here to eat. We came here to live well, for less than $40 a day. We came and we conquered. Although Jason suffered with the flu. Okay, so revised version, I came here, conquered and ate for two.