After calling in to meet an old friend of Oui’s at Uttaradit we headed off for Chiang Mai in North Thailand. They behave a little like Queenslander’s and think they’re another country, not another state or province. The trip itself was uneventful until the last 1.5 kilometers. We got caught in day three of Songkran and it took us over 2 hours to get to our hotel. Goggle sent us in the wrong direction and we had to fight our way through the hordes armed to teeth and ready to kill with all manner of water pistolry. To bring matters to a boiling point we got trapped in a street that was shutting for a market and with incredible efficiency they shut it with traffic still in it forcing us to back out through the mayhem. I shared my opinion of the idiot in charge letting him know his obvious character deficiencies in no uncertain terms.
There are plenty of things to do here, sadly most of them involve the abuse of elephants in some way. But first off we headed to a night market to my ultimate surprise I managed to find a t-shirt in my size. We enjoyed an extremely overpriced dinner at the hotel and went to bed hoping tomorrow would be a better day.
Despite my previous experience we jumped in the car and headed to the hills to visit Phuping Palace and then Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. The palace wan’t really a priority and we expended 70 Baht looking around the gardens and viewing a seemingly modest building and hall from the exterior. It was perfectly lovely but really only visited due to its close proximity to the temple.
The temple dates back (allegedly) to 1383 and contains an “alleged” relic (being the shoulder bone of The Buddha). It has been added to and enlarged and is now a quite garish and extravagant affair. It is located about 15 kilometres out of town however the road is so steep and windy it takes about an hour to reach by car and then you have to park. Once you have negotiated these hurdles you are offered a choice, 309 steps to the top or for a small fee a ride on a funicular to the top. We went with option two.
There are so many temples here that the novelty starts to where off. I’m told over 31,000 temples can be found in the country. It was impressive and displayed an awesome view of the smog choked city. However tomorrow is the day I am looking forward to. I have blown the budget and we are going on a personal elephant encounter with some rescue elephants. I hope the experience matches the hype.
