After breakfast Ed and Boonsong picked us up for our flight to Chaing Mai. We missed most of rush hour and the trip was relatively quick as we were heading out of the city. Not so good for those inbound as the 4-lane highway was backed up solid for at least 15 miles!
We are traveling on Bangkok Airways, know as Thailand’s’ ‘boutique’ airline. They have a travel lounge for anyone traveling regardless of ticket premium and provide coffee, tea, hot chocolate and numerous snacks. The caramel corn was really good. Our flight to Chaing Mai is a little over an hour, yet we were served a very nice hot lunch enroute.
Luggage collection was quick and we were met by our new guide ‘Kong’ and driver ‘Chip’. We decided to check into our hotel, the Amata Lanna, before heading out for the days excursion. The Amata Lanna is a very small 12 room hotel near the night market and the Mae Ping River. Very traditional Thai craftsmanship, the hand carved doors to our room are amazing.
Our first stop is the Wat Pha Lat, the secret jungle temple, midway up the mountain on the way to Wat Pra That Doi Suthep. A very quiet spot and one not normally visited by tourists.
Tradition says the King placed a relic believed to be the Buddha’s shoulder bone on his white elephant and released it into the jungle. The elephant stopped and knelt down in this place while walking up the mountain, the king determined this was a holy spot and constructed this temple in 1383.
We continued up the mountain to Wat Pra That Doi Suthep, one of the most sacred pilgrimage spots in Thailand. Legend suggests the white elephant continued up the mountain with the relic. The elephant is said to have climbed up Doi Suthep, at that time called Doi Aoy Chang (Sugar Elephant Mountain), stopped, trumpeted three times, then dropped dead. This was interpreted as an omen. King Kue Na immediately ordered the construction of a temple at the site as a place to enshrine the holy relic. It is quite impressive and is a working temple with many monks and novices on the grounds. To get to the temple you can opt to climb 309 steps or wimp out like we did and take the funicular. Dick did take the steps on the way down, quite impressive!
After touring the grounds we have a private monks blessing, a very solemn experience.
We had dinner down the street from our hotel at ‘Ekachan The Wisdom of Ethnic Thai Cuisine’. They specialize in Northern Thai cuisine. We selected a northern Thai sausage as an appetizer and had grilled beef (like flank steak) with a Thai Chimichurri sauce, very good. We split a bottle of wine as getting a glass of wine is quite problematic here, it’s just not part of their culture.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. The day was very hot and humid and a little tiring. Did I mention it is very hot and humid?
Mary