Wat? Why yes, it is…

Today’s adventure involved our own walking tour of Chiang Mai. We started with David, who led us to the day market about five blocks from our hotel. One of the areas in the market sold seeds, exotic ones: yard-long beans, Chinese kale, cilantro, all kinds of eggplant and cucumbers, and many more. I couldn’t resist. Twelve packages for a total in baht that is equivalent to $5 US. At home, I would have paid $5 a package, mail ordered from Burpee or Wilhite seed companies. A good start to the day!

David left us to explore on our own as he joined Miriam for a visit with more of her relatives. Phillip and I walked all thru this market, looking at many items including: throw nets for fishing, dried Thai chili peppers (don’t take a deep breath in that area), silk fabric, fruit, wooden kitchen spoons and tongs, laquerware, and clothes. After about an hour and a half, the cooking pan we did buy got heavy in the backpack, so we returned to our hotel in a tuk-tuk (very similar to the taximotos in Ecuador, i.e., the modified motorcycle-front taxis) to unload and cool down. Phillip’s cool-down picture is a good time to show our room. He’s standing right  in front of the air conditioner unit. The room is not as large or fancy as the one in Pattaya, but it is comfortable (now that the A/C works).

We left the hotel again and walked to the Old City part of Chiang Mai. When Chiang Mai was founded in 1296, the ruler built a wall to protect his people from Burmese invaders. Remnants of the wall are still standing or have been reconstructed to reflect the history. This is one of the gates that led into the walled old city.

During our walk, we passed several wats. Wats are Buddhist temples. They are very ornate, as you can see from the following pictures. We did not go inside, although the public can go into parts of them. We will wait for David to go with us, as there are rules for visitors to follow in the wat, and we have no clue as to what the rules are.

Phillip also captured a photo of a monk sitting in the doorway of one of the wats. That’s a Buddha statue out front, but I don’t know the significance of the scary-looking triple fish head statues.

We also saw the monks walking around. They are easy to spot in their robes. This one, with his blue bag, looked like he was attending to non-religious errands.

Even more common than the wats were the shrines. They are not Buddhist, but rather deal with the Thai respect for symbolic figures of holy spirits. We saw shrines outside of people's houses, hotels, and office buildings. Usually, the shrine was a miniature of a brightly-painted Thai house. Sometimes it contained statues and its purpose is to protect the residents or workers. People will burn candles or incense there or bring offerings if they want some specific protection. From across the street, we saw two people at this shrine on the left, making some offering to the spirit. It is so enriching to see other cultures. We certainly wouldn’t see the wats, monks, and shrines in Burleson!

All this walking, about two hours worth made our feet tired, so Phillip and I stopped on our way back to our hotel for an hour long foot massage (for about $5 each). Such a treat for our toes…

We had another dose of Thai culture this evening. We walked to the night market for dinner and they had a brief show at the cultural center there. Two Thai women danced a traditional dance. The event may have usually been longer, but it started to rain really hard and no one could hear the music over the sound of the rain on the metal roof of the market. We walked back to the hotel in the rain, but I had my umbrella in my backpack this time, so I just my feet got wet… Halfway back, Phillip took off running for the hotel and got soaked. Sure hope the ranch is getting rain like this!