Thailand 2 - Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand 
Friday, 20 Sunday 22 January

Left the lofty environs of the Baiyoke Sky Hotel in Bangkok and took a short flight up to Chiang Mai, just one hour. The old city is a grid layout surrounded by the remains of the city walls and one or two gates. Encircling the old city is a large moat. Inside this area is where we stayed and every corner you turn presents you with a most exquisite wat that you just have to go and look at.

They are all the most beautiful temples and we are told there are over 100 in the city and you can believe it. All the monastery sites have gardens that are well tended and have walkways and paths around all the buildings with flower beds on either side with frangipani, jasmine, bougainvillea and of course many others we can't identify. Tall trees give welcome shade and cast crisp shadows because of the intense blue sky. Monks abound; bright saffron denoting novice monks who may stay just a few years and then go back to life outside or may choose to stay and then wear brown robes when they become full time monks, showing a lifelong commitment to the monastic life.

Inside, the temples are fantastically and beautifully decorated, some with ancient murals, some with modern depictions, showing scenes from the life of Buddha, some showing stories from olden times with battles, animals and royal court life. Red and gold dominate and many Buddha statues are covered in gold leaf. Incense fills the air as people constantly come to light incense sticks, offer gifts to the monastery (usually yellow cellophane-wrapped parcels containing toiletries, rice and even electrical goods (blenders seem very popular), plus offerings of money. 

Young couples sit with a monk at one side of the wat hall and the discussion ends with him giving them what we think is a type of blessing. Other people come in and sit down facing the Buddha images (they sit on the ground with their feet to one or other side of them as showing the soles of your feet to all and sundry is considered bad manners) and say prayers. However, there is nothing precious about it and no one is concerned by tourists like us wandering in and taking pictures as long as we are respectful, barefoot and appropriately dressed – shoulders and legs decently covered and no hat.

In contrast to this beauty and serenity you have the hustle and bustle of the modern city that surrounds the old one, plus the odd sensation that there are two types of tourist here; tour groups, backpackers, individuals and couples on holiday make up the first. The second is exclusively male, mostly, but not all, middle-aged or above. There was one street we wandered down on our first evening that was full of bars with girls, waiting for, or already sitting with a male tourist. We didn't stop for a drink - just kept going.

Our first night was in the Smile Guesthouse that we booked on-line. However, as a rat jumped out of the bin in reception in front of Celia as we checked in, we both knew it would also be our only night at this establishment. The other guests were a motley collection of spike haired, tatooed, wannabe hippies, way too cool to risk smiling or even saying hello.

Next day we moved to a better hotel called The Parasol and it was a better area too. There are some great food places here, like the Garden Island Restaurant, where a charming Frenchman and his Thai wife have been running this successful eatery for several years. We drank French wine – it was a dream! Of course there are great Thai restaurants too and the food is always good. However, being in the old city means there is always a slight whiff of drains or 'rat subway', as John calls it. Nevertheless, the stench benchmark is Old Delhi and this comes nowhere near that high tide mark!

Live music is played in some of the bars and we sit and listen to a young Thai band playing US west coast covers like The Eagles and they were very good. Nearly all the music here seems to come from the late seventies – suits us fine as we know all the words. 
 

The climate is easier up here than in Bangkok; hot in the day but cooler evenings – still shirtsleeves but not boiling hot – very nice. There is a considerable size permanent ex-pat community running bars and restaurants and no doubt other businesses as well. Some people we meet never discuss their past – but you can see it behind their eyes.

Detail of the day: many people here have small pet dogs and, by Thai standards, it is cold here at night, they put little fancy coats on them that button underneath. Some with applique work or pom poms in bright colours.

Sunday night they have what they call a 'walking street' market. The crossroads outside our hotel is the centre of the old city and the four roads leading off are closed to traffic from 5 pm until around 10 pm. Hundreds of small stalls are set up on each side of these streets and they sell handicrafts, leather work, carved wooden objects, clothing, bags made of cloth and bags made of crocodile, paintings, batik, tie-dye, silk scarves, badges, jewellery – all good fun. What makes it even better is that it is not just tourists but all the locals are there as well. People mix more here than in Bangkok and it is very laid back and relaxed.

Also, numerous food stalls, including one exclusively selling deep fried insects. We identified ants, grasshoppers, locusts, grubs, worms and spiders amongst many others – John wanted to try these but his stomach wouldn't and you can imagine what Celia thought.

Down the centre of the market, at frequent intervals, are musicians and singers, playing guitars and traditional Thai instruments. Many have a disability and this is their means of income. Some are excellent and some aren't.

Just opposite our hotel is one of the very few old wooden houses here, built up on stilts and made of large teak columns supporting wooden walls and a tiled roof. It has downstairs rooms and then you walk up a broad and beautifully made wooden staircase that runs up the outside of the building to a large covered verandah running round the whole building and you can enter all the rooms from it, so air passes through keeping it cool. All the interior walls are dark wood and they stop a couple of feet from the ceiling. The top part is just a lattice-work screen – again to allow air to flow through. It was a merchants house, built in the late 1800s and lived in for several generations by the Chinese family that built it. It was donated to the university in recent years and is now part of the architecture faculty and had a small exhibition showing the preservation and planning works for the old city and surrounding wall and moat. It is has a large walled garden with big old trees and you can feel how the city must have once looked. The whole place has an air of peace and tranquillity.

Back at the hotel and back to more practical matters. John's heels are all dry and rough, probably from Celia making him go and walk round all the temples – so it is agreed he will have a foot spa. This is la large tank with myriad small fish waiting to nibble away all that skin. Celia declines having taken nephew Seamus' advice that “you can get some funny things from those spas”. However, this spa has not been used for at least a week and looks very clean so John sits on a cushioned bench and lowers his feet in to let the fish do their work for an hour. He doesn't look too relaxed and says some of the bigger fish definitely nip a bit harder than he would prefer – Celia is definitely happy with her decision not to have one. Anyway the result is quite good for John's heels and no horrible disease acquired – so far! Then we both have a foot massage – much more to Celia's liking and very relaxing. 


 We chat to a couple of Canadians who are living and working in China teaching English and are on a couple of weeks break. We meet so many interesting people and that is one of the most wonderful parts of this trip for us – chance meetings and fascinating conversations, tips and hints on where to go and what to see, pitfalls to avoid and of course we all love to share our travel lies!

We consult our travel map and decide to head further north, nearer to the Burmese border, and have a look at a place called Pai next. The hotel staff are very helpful and arrange our transport up country. That tale will be on the next blog.