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| The Wat at the top of Doi Suthep |
When we visited Chiang Mai in April, it was Songkran, the water festival. We had been told that if you really wanted to experience Songkran, you had to do so in Chiang Mai. I believe they must have been right since thousands of people traveled the streets in trucks with huge barrels of water and adults and children with small buckets, dousing walkers on the streets. Packs of people armed with super soaker squirt guns roamed the streets, taking aim at anyone in close proximity. It appeared that everyone, young or not so young, was involved in the craziness.
Fast forward to July of 2011: This time around, decisions on where/what we wanted to visit was not impacted by water of any kind (well, sometimes the rain). We stayed in Mae Rim, about 15 minutes from downtown. It was a lovely place in the country. Chiang Mai is absolutely gorgeous. The tall, lush mountains are breathtaking. Having our own car afforded us the opportunity to drive paths not taken by many other than locals. One day’s excursion took us through hill tribes and to the Royal Gardens of Queen Sirikit. I couldn’t get enough photos of the stunning flowers and plants that we saw. On our ride home, we weren’t exactly sure of where we were so we decided to use the GPS on the iPhone. We ended up taking these little-travelled dirt roads in the middle of what appeared to be rice fields, not knowing if our car might sink at any moment. It was quite an adventure as we raced against time to find our way back to our lodging before the battery died.
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| Our home away from home for the week |
Of course, food is always a main attraction of any trip we take. We enjoyed returning to one of our favorite Khao Soy (thick, savory soup with noodles) “restaurants” that we had discovered on our last trip. It is always amazing to us the quality and quantity of great food we can get for 60 – 90 baht ($2-3 dollars). Our friend Jenny is a vegetarian so we are always looking for good veggie eateries. We found a fabulous vegetarian restaurant that David insisted we return to at least once or twice more before we left. It was amazing what they could do with tofu (da-hu).
We also took our obligatory trip up to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, the Buddhist temple atop Doi Suthep Mountain. It is probably the most visited spot in Chiang Mai by foreigners. It was a wet and rainy day, so navigating the 309 steps to the very top was a feat in itself. When we reached the top, we enjoyed the view of a number of golden buddhas, huge chimes and a golden chedi. It was worth the climb.
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| The Chiang Mai Countryside |
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