Chiang Mai

Inside the City Walls

There aren’t many words in this post, but there are plenty of pictures. Chiang Mai offers up surprise treats for the eyeballs almost everywhere you go. And for those preferring not to feel like they are being slowly cooked alive in a sous vide bath, the climate is ideal, if not cold, for those of us used to being steamed alive; we had to pop into the local Decathlon for fleeces.

This probably requires more than a couple of photos. The three kings in this Monument are King Mengrai, King Ramkhamhaeng, and King Ngam Muang, who founded the city in 1296.

And if there are kings around, there must be a queen nearby. And here she is, getting a pedicure with something that looks like a Dremel.

Christmas lights and curious things

It was Late November, and electric angels lit up the streets outside the city walls. And inside the walls we stumbled across many curious things…

It was Maria’s birthday while we were in Chiang Mai, so I booked us a room at a Vegan retreat. That, for some, might seem like torture. But my thinking was that it would keep the rabble out and keep the peace within. It succeeded on both counts. But, to ensure it stays that way, the hotel adheres to another Buddhist principle: not getting sloshed. With no booze on sale, we had to hit the bars and restaurants of Chiang Mai. Perhaps understandably, the hotel restaurant was very quiet in the evenings but the nearby bar was buzzing.

A bit of a punch-up

We couldn’t leave without seeing a Muay Thai fight, especially with the boxing ring so close to the hotel (mind you, almost everywhere was close to the hotel). There’s a sports bar and restaurant next door to the stadium, so we called in for pizza and beer to get Maria fight-ready,

The boxing started off with the women’s fight. The fighter below is receiving some coaching from her trainer. It didn’t work.

At the interval, they put the overweight folks in the ring, blindfolded for light entertainment.

Back to the temples

We concluded our tour of the temples with a visit to the magnificent Wat Chedi Luang. King Saen Muang Ma commissioned the building as a repository for his father’s remains. Clearly, he liked his dad. Work on the building began in 1391, but he didn’t live long enough to see it through. His wife took over after the king’s death, but she too ran out of time. Ultimately, it was completed in 1475 under King Tilokarat’s rule.

This was also the home of the Emerald Buddha, which was moved from here in 1551 after the temple was partially destroyed by either an earthquake or war (there is some dispute over the cause). After that, the temple remained in a state of disrepair until restoration started in 1928 under King Ananda Mahidol and was restarted in 1992, supported by Unesco and the Japanese government.

History lesson over, here are the pics:

And that was it for our exploration of Chiang Mai. We enjoyed it so much that we bought small souvenirs from the night market. Next it’s back to Pangkor to see if we can actually leave the marina nicknamed Hotel California.