Chiang Mai

After 3 days in transit, it was a welcome relief to be able to stay in one spot for a few days. Chiang Mai is an old capital of the Lanna empire, and has an old town defined by a remnant moat and defensive walls. Inside, there is a huge collection of temples which we spent some time exploring, different yet again from the other places we had been. Decorations were brighter and there was a lot more gold, reinforcing our impression of the relative wealth in Thailand. One new feature was the presence of (inanimate) famous monks sitting in the temples, as objects of veneration. Being the first time we encountered this it is was a bit disconcerting, as the figure was in a glass case and it wasn't clear if it was a well preserved body or a wax figure. Thankfully, further investigation across other temples revealed that there is extensive use of (very realistic) wax replicas of famous monks. Despite hot and humid weather, wandering through the old town was quite pleasant, aided by the availability of many coffee shops which all provided various forms of caffeinated icy cold drinks.

Just outside of town is a mountain, and a collection of yet more temples, with What Phra That Doi Suthep sitting at the top. The site was chosen by one of the kings, who placed relics of Buddha on an elephant and let it walk up the mountain, waiting until it stopped to rest. Said elephant picked a scenic spot right at the top of the hill, where the temple was then constructed... There is a walking path up the mountain, known as the Monk's Trail, which follows an old route taken to worship at various temple sites, finishing at Doi Suthep. We decided that this would be a good combination of exercise and sightseeing, so grabbed a tuk-tuk to take us to the start of the path. Due to either a miscommunication, or some more deliberate misunderstanding, we were taken to the wrong start point where there was a collection of more high powered vehicles to take us up the hill. This resulted in a long walk past the zoo and through the local university to finally arrive, one hour later, at the proper starting point.   

The walk is pretty steep and we wound our way up to Wat Phra Lat, which is set on the side of a stream and cut into the side of the hill. The recent rain (there had been enough that we saw flood warnings for Chiang Mai), meant that sections of the path had turned into a stream themselves, making us glad we had worn our boots, rather than joggers. The little complex at Wat Phra Lat was very picturesque, incorporating a temple located in a rock overhang, and making use of the water as a feature throughout the site. 

The next part of the walking trail was considerably steeper, and slowed our progress considerably. Short distances on the map were exacerbated by tricky clambering up the damp trail, with frequent rest breaks. Less than 1km from the finish, the temperature dropped and it started raining. Then it started really pouring - in the great tradition of monsoonal rain. We found ourselves basically walking up a stream bed, and within minutes were completely soaked through. By the time we emerged onto the road for the last few hundred metres, the main game was to get back home and dried off. An opportunistic tuk-tuk driver was coming down the hill and charged us somewhat more than usual to take us back to where we were staying, where we were grateful to have an apartment with a washing machine! 

After stopping to visit the Lanna Folklife Museum, we had ourselves driven back to the top the next day (we had gotten really close...), and explored the temple in more favourable weather, stunned by the amount of gold leaf employed and enjoying the views. The 300 steps up to the temple were looked upon with less enthusiasm, with sore legs from the day before... 

The afternoon saw us wandering back through the old city and with a quick visit to the Museum of Broken Relationships, which was surprisingly interesting. It was started in Zagreb, and opened a second branch in Chiang Mai with a collection of poignant stories, highlighted with a variety of different objects left over from the aforementioned broken relationships. It also has travelling temporary exhibits, James vaguely recalled visiting one in Sydney or Melbourne at some point. It was a slightly offbeat way to end our time in the city (apart from the local restaurant for dinner and a quick wander the next morning), but we enjoyed our time in Chiang Mai, notwithstanding the solid soaking on the hike.