Friday, 13th January, 2017

Well, as promised, here I am again. And, as mentioned, today we had a half day tour to a temple (of course!) called Doi Suthep, doi meaning mountain and Suthep meaning, er, hang on a minute…… no, it basically means Mt. Suthep. The actual temple is called Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, but it is generally called Doi Suthep by everyone.

We were eventually picked up quite late, largely because we were sharing a Toyota minibus and our rather out-of-the-way hotel meant we were the last ones. Still, our fellow passengers were very friendly and international (French, American, living in Cambodia, Singaporean and a Danish couple on a gap year) and we were soon winding our way up the mountain at some speed. The temple is alleged to have been founded in the 14th century when a monk gave a relic of the Buddha’s shoulder bone to a local king who put it on a white elephant (no, not that sort) who was released into the jungle. The albino pachyderm then marched up the mountain, trumpeted 3 times – and dropped down dead. Definitely time to build a temple, thinks the king!

It is impressively high up with a great view of Chiang Mai. The road was built in 1935 only, so it must have been an act of great faith to have made your way there in the past, especially as once you get there, you have the joy of 306 steps up the staircase. The good news for us oldies is that there is now a funicular railway!

On arrival at the top, we were taken by Peter (Western name, other name too difficult for us, it seems) past some stunning flowers about which I became very excited, until I discovered they were fake – though very good ones! Excellent views of CM. It was then off to the main attraction. I will let the photos do the talking…..

A LOT of gold! And Buddhas! Val managed to get blessed with a substantial shower of holy water, which looked quite refreshing. I have to admit, putting aside the spectacular expenditure on gold and other decorations that could arguably have been better spent on things like education or health care and also downplaying my rather atheistic tendencies these days, it is well worth a visit. And there were some rather nice bits around the main area as well, that felt suitably quiet and monkish….

Note the white elephant in the photos above (and the turquoise one too!). It was now time to walk down the 306 steps, though not without a few more snaps. I hope you enjoy the one of ‘Mom’…….. !

This was not the end of our tour as we were also to visit a Hmong tribe village – and see the local produce, of course. The goods on offer were a vast improvement on what was on offer in CM proper and we were only sorry we did not have more room in our suitcases. Some great hats! And fabrics and the tribal dress.

And out the back of the village, which is part of the Royal Project, started by the late King to get the tribes people off growing opium and into something a bit more healthy, there is a nice little garden. There was an impressively big lemon on show and I do like the photo of the girl trying out the tribal outfit for a selfie.

Sadly I could not get a photo to do justice to the bamboo stand, which was a good 200 feet high.

It was back into the van for the exciting trip down the hill again and back from what had been a very good day. The sun had even shone!

More soon, but we are off to Mandalay early tomorrow, so I will have to find time to put it together. Hope you are enjoying the blog.