Holiday in Chiang Mai

Ok, get ready for a super long post because it's been a while since I've last visited here. My family would joke that it's because we've been playing too hard! Haha. And it's true. During the middle of July, we hit the middle of the semester so we had a week off while our students took their midterms. And that week was preceded by a 4-day weekend due to the Buddhist Lent holidays. So we almost had 2 full weeks to ourselves and we chose to travel around Thailand!

If you're looking for the typical mountainous, green parts of Thailand, full of lush forests and rich with tribal culture, look no further! Chiang Mai is the place. I have to say that if for some reason we decided to live in Thailand for a long period of time (and I'm not saying anything by this hah), I would probably pick Chiang Mai. For me, it was the perfect blend of city life and mountain country. It is pretty international-friendly with diverse food options and many more people speaking English than where we live in Saraburi. But you can still find places tucked away from the old city that are less-touristy. We loved it and have already planned another trip to go back!

From Bangkok, we took the 12-hour train nearly all the way up to the northern tip of Thailand. I didn't actually think that I would enjoy being on a train all day, as much as I did. We had A/C, there was frequent complimentary beverage service and the seats did recline a little. We just spent the whole day munching on our snacks and watching the scenery transform from the plains and fields of the Central Region to the elevated rice fields and jungles of the North. We got into Chiang Mai around 9:00 pm, found the nearest hostel, battled the cockroach awaiting in our bathroom, and passed out for the night.

You can't stay in Chiang Mai without having at least one day of temple-seeing. And the wats (temples) in Chiang Mai are the coolest in all of Thailand! (We at least think so). I think we were used to seeing the Central Region architectural styles so having a change was very refreshing. Up there, they use a lot of different building materials, other than gold, and they have the 5-headed dragon serpent, Naga, incorporated on many of their wats. Here's a picture of Naga below. Our whole first day was spent exploring the Old City and running into as many temples as possible. And there were A LOT. Here are a couple of our favorites.

Wat Chedi Luang. Super big and super ornate. Gorgeous inside. This is where the Emerald Buddha was originally held before getting moved to the Grand Palace grounds in Bangkok.

Wat Pan Tao. This one is of special note because it is made entirely out of teak wood. After a while, all the temples kind of start to look the same... but not this one! 

And Wat Sri Suphan. The one and only temple in all of Thailand made out of silver (instead of the usual gold)! This one took us a bit of time driving in circles to find. It's a little more off the beaten path, at least for tourists. It was well worth the trouble though.

We just happened to miss the celebration of Wan Asana Bucha which was the night before we arrived in Chiang Mai. This holiday commemorates the Buddha's first sermon, outlining the 4 noble truths, and is also basically the birth of Buddhist sangha (monkhood). Buddhists celebrate by trekking back to the temples of their ancestors, listening to sermons and bringing offerings to monks. I didn't take this picture, but we saw the aftermath of all the candles the next day. So unfortunate that we missed it by only one day :/

We had an early morning the next day as we got picked up and taken to Baan Chang Elephant Park. Spent the better part of the day feeding, bathing, and riding elephants! We picked this particular park because we heard good reviews on how they treat these majestic animals. Apparently many of their elephants are from other camps where they were mistreated or their level of care was too low. I'm not going to judge or start a big thing here, but from what I saw, the mahouts at this camp seemed to really care for their elephants and we had a very positive experience.

This "Mahout Training," was fun to do because I felt like we got a lot more time and intimacy with the elephants. We got to be really close to them and I even stuck some bananas directly into an elephant's mouth! Ha! We were taught the commands to have the elephant briefly sit down (so you can get on and off) and the directions for go straight, turn, and stop. Basically we got elephant driving lessons! It was pretty awesome.

After a couple of pretty thorough showers, we headed back out to the city in the evening and spent a few hours (and a couple thousand baht) at the Sunday Walking Street. Basically a huge section of the Old City which is blocked off and lined with markets and vendors of fabrics, snacks, and home décor. We bought our first souvenirs since being in Thailand and it was oh so good.

On day 3 of our Chiang Mai trip, we took our rented motorbike up the mountain, Doi Suthep (west of the Old City) and had the most pleasant drive we've EVER had in Thailand! (And that's saying something because we've done a lot of driving and traveling). As we ascended the mountain, the air got crisp and was incredibly refreshing. That is the first time I've ever felt chilly outside! It was delightful! Halfway up, we were rewarded with a fantastic view of Chiang Mai city and then we headed up to the temple on the mountain, Wat Phra Doi Suthep.

Out of all the temples we've been to in Thailand, this one is our FAVORITE. Maybe it's because the drive up to it was so fantastic, or maybe it's because of this gorgeous 306-step Naga staircase. Whatever the reason, it was the highlight of our trip. The story behind this temple is that a monk strapped a Buddhist relic on a white elephant's back and let it loose to wander and 'choose' a spot for the temple to be built. The elephant continued to wander through the forests and ended up dying on this spot on the mountain, so that's where they built it. The temple mount itself is beautiful, of course, and if you walk around the grounds there is a breathtaking view of the city.

We spent a good amount of time walking around the grounds, in and out of little shrine rooms. As I walked into one of them there was a group of farang (foreigners) gathered and sitting in front of a monk. I knelt down by myself in the corner but then the monk called out to me and wanted me to join them. I've seen Thai people kneel before monks as they make merit and are in turn blessed, but I was not expecting to experience it myself! So I scooted over there while spotting Jonathan and urging him to go over there too. We got sprinkled with water by a lotus flower as this super outgoing monk blessed us in Thai and then ended it with the little English he knew, "happy, happy, happy, good, good, happy!" Happiness and goodness; that's all you need I guess!

Before leaving, we got to sign our names on a roll of golden fabric that was to be wrapped around the pagoda the next day! We have officially left our marks on Thailand. Oh and we stopped on our way back down the staircase for a photo-op with this little girl from one of the many hill tribes who inhabit Doi Suthep.

After driving further up the mountain (trying to find the summit, we were unsuccessful), we headed back down and had a late lunch at the best Mexican place EVER. It's the first and only time we'll probably get Mexican food in Thailand. It's called Salsa Kitchen, for anyone who wants to know. It was so good that we ate there multiple times during our trip haha. Anyways, we went back into the Old City and stopped by Wat Chedi Luang (to see if they were doing anything else for the continuing holiday) where we witnessed something unique. We came upon a huge meeting of all these monks. This day was Wan Khao Pansa, which I believe commemorates the beginning of the "Rains Retreat" which many people have dubbed 'Buddhist Lent.' It is historically when the Buddha urged monks to stay in one temple to prevent them from wandering the countryside and accidentally stepping on the rice fields during the few months of rain. Some Buddhists observe this holiday by giving up or withholding something from themselves for the duration of rainy season (July-Oct), hence the 'lent' reference. Anyways, I think this gathering had something to do with this holiday. But if not, it was still pretty cool.

Oh, I forgot like the coolest place we went to! I don't remember what day we went to it, it's all kind of a blur now, but it was a pleasant surprise! The Royal Flora Ratchaphruek. As part of celebrating His Majesty the King's 60th anniversary of reign (in 2006), a huge flower festival was put together as a 3-month long expo. Afterwards, it opened up to the public (it's been revamped a few times) and now you can easily spend 2-3 hours walking through 200 acres worth of various gardens, nature displays and flower pavilions. Jonathan and I happened to get there about 2 hours before it closed and we were almost the only ones there! (One of the benefits of traveling during off season). Basically had the whole park to ourselves.

We walked through the gates and had this view. Breathtaking! They also had music piped through a speaker system that was set up throughout the whole park playing a combination of piano instrumentals and elevator music. It was very relaxing.

SO many temples!

And another time during our trip (don't remember when), we stopped at Wiang Kum Kam which is the archaeological site of an ancient city. It's not too far from the old city of Chiang Mai, but it is much, much older. Neighborhoods have been built on top of it, so we drove around through the maze of sois (little streets) trying to find random ruins sprinkled here and there. We had no idea where we were going and even got chased out of someone's backyard by a super aggressive dog, hah! But we eventually found our way to the most beautiful and notable temple, Wat Chedi Liam.

There was almost NO photo editing done on this one. It really was a fantastically beautiful day! I've decided that Thailand has the best clouds.

Our final day in Chiang Mai definitely came too soon. I was already making a list of all the things I wanted to do and see next time! We made our way out to the forest wat, Wat U-Mong which, you guessed it - is out in the middle of the forest. What made this wat cool is that this was a popular temple for monks to retreat from the city and practice meditating and such. Beneath the temple they made a series of tunnels, I guess to really retreat and be one with the Earth. It was interesting and pretty. 
(Can you see me below?!)

Chiang Mai really does love its Naga staircases...

After one more stop to our favorite Mexican restaurant, we caught the overnight train back down to Bangkok and drove in the public van to Saraburi, just in time for proctoring our students' midterms for one day. Then back on the road we were, for a quick trip to Elephant Island! Here's the ferry boat that took us from the mainland to Koh Chang (it's real name in Thai).

The vacation itself wasn't ideal, but it was a vacation nonetheless. I'll give it to you in a 2-sentence recap: We were there for 3 days, two of which rained all day and all of which Jonathan was sick with a fever. However we did have one beautiful day on the beach and we spent the whole trip doing two of my favorite things - eating and relaxing. It was essentially a vacation from our (other busier) vacations!

This is how a lot of our time was spent. Jonathan sick in bed while I read a book or watched the waves outside our window. Poor guy.

One of the days, we slept in and went to this little hang out spot for brunch - called the Magic Garden. We took our sweet time there and then as soon as we were about to leave, a huge storm poured on us so we were stuck. We curled up with our books and waited it out. Next thing we know, we are hungry again for lunch! How convenient that we were already sitting in a restaurant haha. So basically we spent almost a whole day in this one spot. The ultimate definition of a lazy day.

Hammock reading in front of the ocean. Life doesn't get much better than this!

After nearly 2 weeks of straight traveling, we got a stinging slap back to reality. We headed back to school, to lesson planning, and back to grading stacks and stacks of midterms. I guess vacations do come with a price.