Wat A World, Chiang Mai, Thailand

After sleeping in we got up to look for a place to do laundry and find breakfast. We found a laundromat and service just a block away, checked prices, and then found breakfast at a hostel while walking back our hotel. Jane checked with a travel tour agency across the street and arranged a tour for the next day to an elephant sanctuary. 

The De Lanna Hotel was located almost in the middle of the old walled city, first established by the rulers of the Lanna kingdom. We were surrounded by attractions. There was a Buddhist monastery, Wat Pha Bong, a block from the hotel and Don started taking his photographic temple images. This was a minor temple but had a lot of interesting features for him to capture with his camera. We then discovered a major Wat, Thai for temple, less than a block away, the Wat Phra Singh which much larger, built in the 14th century and is considered one of the most beautiful of the wats. Don, of course, had a heyday, especially after discovering the gold stupa behind the chedi, or main hall. 

After exploring these temples, we wandered inside the ancient walls of the moated city. Over 100 temples have been built in Chiang Mai and the surrounding areas with the majority located in the old city. We visited so many of them this first day that we stopped trying to keep track of them all. They seemed to be on every block and often abut each other. 

We decided to look for the Monument to the Three Kings. This is dedicated to the formation of the Thai kingdom by a triumvirate of smaller kingdoms, as a symbol of unity and forgiveness overcoming ancient and current hatreds and betrayals. We finally found it just a few blocks away from our hotel. Don decided the lighting wasn’t good for pictures. We were quite tired of our meanderings of the day. On the way back to the hotel, we saw the temple which was built literally in the middle of the road and which occupied so much space that the right of way shrank from more than 2 lanes to barely enough for one lane of one way traffic. Since, Don had decided to seek early morning light for the Three Kings Monument, we did not stop long and knew that we would be back.

We walked only a couple blocks to get back to the hotel after the long day. The hotel, we found out, had a laundry service. so we did not have to take our clothes any further than the front desk. We were charged $70THB per kilo (less than $1USD per pound), so the cost was well worth it. After leaving the laundry with the clerk, we tried the restaurant at the hotel. Here, I discovered pumpkin soup. I always thought pumpkin was an American baking squash for pies, but in Southeast Asia pumpkin is served as a veggie and especially as a creamy soup. We were the only patrons, at first, and enjoyed the acoustic guitar player’s entertaining sets of 60’s and 70’s ballads and soft rock songs. A few more patrons came in after the guitarist left, so we were the only ones that enjoyed the music. After our relaxing dinner, we went to bed. while anticipating our meeting elephants, up close and personally, in the morning.