Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai
Tuesday May 22nd
Today was to be the last day of our eight day whirlstop tour of Thailand with Chiang Mai Driver as our guide. We have mixed feelings this morning because it has been a wonderful tour full of excellent sights and sites but it has been very "full on" and a slower pace won't hurt us for the rest of our "holiday" I suspect we will need a holiday when we get home but that will not be a hardship.
It had been a huge tropical storm during the night the full nine yards of lightning flshes rumbling thunder and lashing rain. Sart, our guide, told us that he had seen on TV that there were many building damaged and roofs off in other parts of Thailand. On the whole we have been fortunate with the weather considering we are in the rainy season.
However it was raining as we arrived at Wat Rong Khun (the white temple) having cancelled our scheduled Mekong river cruise because of the weather forecast. Nothing could dampen the beauty and reflective brightness of the white temple. the brainchild of a painter turned architect we reckoned that he was a fan of Salvador Dali. Unlike the many centuries old temples that we had visited over the preceding days, this glorious series of nine (lucky) buildings was begun in 1997 and was still being added to. It made interesting use of ordinary materials to fantastic effect. The structure was painted concrete with millions of tiny mirrors stuck to the outside. The various covered walkways are hung with millions of tiny aluminium papaya shaped leaves cut from aluminium cans. It was quite something AND we had beaten the Chinese so it was quiet and peaceful.
Instead of riding on elephants (which we had declined) and the Mekong cruise (which declined us) we toured the countryside looking at more ordinary villages and farming and Pauline leapt out at regular intervals to take photos. We even got a photo of a scene which would have graced our Primary school geography book ( when half of the world was pink) of a rubber plantation with the sap being collected in containers at the foot of the tree under a slash in the bark.
We were headed for Mae Sui ( which means beautiful mother) to see another modern temple - this one was in a Burmese and Chinese style - very colourful and very ornate and very beautiful and again very peaceful. It must have been the ninth something because we were very lucky with the weather as well.
(Hardly an hour passes without some reference to good luck evil spirits or just for good luck.)
The creator of this temple had a wicked sense of humour. The centre piece just inside the gate had monks who were carrying some burden on poles wearing trainers and flip flops. One was smoking, another had a glass and a bottle of whisky in his hand another was making a very non Buddhist hand gesture. But the rest of the scene and its surroundings were the normal symbols of three, five seven or nine snakes and dragons etc. At a glance you could easily miss the modern symbolism.
Lunch was taken at a hot spring by the side of the road where an attempt was underway to recreate Ankhor Wat ( Cambodian Temple complex) as a further tourist attraction. We ate well enough but the Kao Soi (chicken noodle curry) was of tourist strength and didn't require much water to douse the fire.
As we made our way back to Chiang Mai we had time to realise hoe much we had learned in a short time and also how little that was compared to what there was still to learn. Buddha said that we know is like a leaf in the forest and what we don't know is the forest. But we could recognise banana, papaya, teak, rubber, lychees, coconut palms, mango trees. Pineapples to our amazement grow on the ground as do water melons. We could point out corn, dragon fruit, longan, rambutan, jack fruit, dorian (hold your nose) as well as the ubiquitous rice in all of its stages (three crops a year) We could also point to coffee plants and tea plants - none of which we had seen a week ago!
When we reached Chiang Mai we were sad to see Sart go but we didn't linger because he has a NINE hour journey tonight to collect his next clients who are doing our tour as far as Chiang Mai (five days)
It has been great having someone able to offer such insights into Thai culture. Having been a monk he could tell us anything about the symbolism of the things we were seeing in the temples. Having grown up on a farm he could answer any of our questions about farming methods and plants. He was full of jokes about Japanese buffalo (rotovators) But it has been very intense and a few days to chill and tour at a more leisurely pace are welcome.
Today was to be the last day of our eight day whirlstop tour of Thailand with Chiang Mai Driver as our guide. We have mixed feelings this morning because it has been a wonderful tour full of excellent sights and sites but it has been very "full on" and a slower pace won't hurt us for the rest of our "holiday" I suspect we will need a holiday when we get home but that will not be a hardship.
It had been a huge tropical storm during the night the full nine yards of lightning flshes rumbling thunder and lashing rain. Sart, our guide, told us that he had seen on TV that there were many building damaged and roofs off in other parts of Thailand. On the whole we have been fortunate with the weather considering we are in the rainy season.
 |
| It is not made of icing sugar |
However it was raining as we arrived at Wat Rong Khun (the white temple) having cancelled our scheduled Mekong river cruise because of the weather forecast. Nothing could dampen the beauty and reflective brightness of the white temple. the brainchild of a painter turned architect we reckoned that he was a fan of Salvador Dali. Unlike the many centuries old temples that we had visited over the preceding days, this glorious series of nine (lucky) buildings was begun in 1997 and was still being added to. It made interesting use of ordinary materials to fantastic effect. The structure was painted concrete with millions of tiny mirrors stuck to the outside. The various covered walkways are hung with millions of tiny aluminium papaya shaped leaves cut from aluminium cans. It was quite something AND we had beaten the Chinese so it was quiet and peaceful.
Instead of riding on elephants (which we had declined) and the Mekong cruise (which declined us) we toured the countryside looking at more ordinary villages and farming and Pauline leapt out at regular intervals to take photos. We even got a photo of a scene which would have graced our Primary school geography book ( when half of the world was pink) of a rubber plantation with the sap being collected in containers at the foot of the tree under a slash in the bark.
We were headed for Mae Sui ( which means beautiful mother) to see another modern temple - this one was in a Burmese and Chinese style - very colourful and very ornate and very beautiful and again very peaceful. It must have been the ninth something because we were very lucky with the weather as well.
(Hardly an hour passes without some reference to good luck evil spirits or just for good luck.)
 |
| I'm picturing you picturing me? |
The creator of this temple had a wicked sense of humour. The centre piece just inside the gate had monks who were carrying some burden on poles wearing trainers and flip flops. One was smoking, another had a glass and a bottle of whisky in his hand another was making a very non Buddhist hand gesture. But the rest of the scene and its surroundings were the normal symbols of three, five seven or nine snakes and dragons etc. At a glance you could easily miss the modern symbolism.
As we made our way back to Chiang Mai we had time to realise hoe much we had learned in a short time and also how little that was compared to what there was still to learn. Buddha said that we know is like a leaf in the forest and what we don't know is the forest. But we could recognise banana, papaya, teak, rubber, lychees, coconut palms, mango trees. Pineapples to our amazement grow on the ground as do water melons. We could point out corn, dragon fruit, longan, rambutan, jack fruit, dorian (hold your nose) as well as the ubiquitous rice in all of its stages (three crops a year) We could also point to coffee plants and tea plants - none of which we had seen a week ago!
When we reached Chiang Mai we were sad to see Sart go but we didn't linger because he has a NINE hour journey tonight to collect his next clients who are doing our tour as far as Chiang Mai (five days)
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| This is the village chief's house |
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