TRIP DAY: Sunday, November 6th, 2022
POST DAY: Tuesday, Nov. 8th 9:00 PM GMT+7/ Tuesday, Nov. 8th 8:00 AM CST
Today we travel north, north to Chiang Mai. It is possible to track a train or car to Chiang Mai but that transit time is 12+ hours. We flew and the plan ride was 55 minutes total. Our flight was at 9:40 am and if you know me by know I did not sleep at all last night. I will not lie that plane ride was a little iffy. For one, the way we boarded the plane was by taking a shuttle the plane on the tarmac, loading from the tarmac. Second, I had the very last seat in the back of the plane, so I felt every take off, landing, turbulence, and movement from like the carts in the back that had drinks and food.
We also were provided an on-plane meal.
You hear me, a 55-minute flight and we still got some HOT food. The plane was giving and looking Spirit vibes but gave service of American/United international flights with meals. I feel like US domestic flights need to step their game up and provided us with a one meal plan option.
When we landed in Chiang Mai, the temperature was a lot cooler for one and the city was already less crowded. The city, to me, gives me Fort Lauderdale / small-big city vibes. Chiang Mai is the largest city in the North and yet it still feels small. I would prefer Chiang Mai’s traffic and paste over Bangkok’s any day.
Landing around 11:50 AM still gave us and entire half day in Chiang Mai.
EF GUIDE
First up: Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. This temple is the most holy and opulent Buddhist site in Thailand (you know, in case the fact that it’s entirely covered in gold gets lost on you) and is one of the top experiences in Thailand.
Wat Suan Dok Temple. Heading to the Wat Suan Dok temple and monastery. While you’re there, talk to a Buddhist monk—about your time with the gentle giants, the meaning of life, or anything else.
- Snake up the 306 steps to get to the famous Buddhist temple, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep.
- “holy poop” (you are at a religious site after all) as you take in the vistas of Chiang Mai and the emerald green forests below.
- Enjoy a traditional kantoke dinner with your group tonight.
The first excursion we did when landing in Chiang Mai was something not apart of the itinerary but rather something our tour guide booked extra. We had the wonderful opportunity to visit have a conversation with a monk. We first visited the local temple and then went to the visiting center to hear the monk speak about his journey.
The man provided a lot of insight on why he chose to become a monk. He wanted to the water explanation about how Buddhism is a way of life and not a religion. He spoke about the differences between the practices withing Buddhism and why Buddhism is about enlightening and finding oneself. The thing that captured me the most when he spoke about how one can practice Buddhism and still have a religion. So, in hindsight, you could be a Buddhist Christian, you could be a Buddhist Jewish. The biggest thing is that in Buddhism they believe in karma and reaching nirvana. They're simple practices and rules that one could follow within their life to get to the highest state of nirvana. The idea that I'm most resonated with the monk was when he explained that there are a couple rules when practicing Buddhism. One of the first rules is understanding that there is truth in life that you could never escape. You must accept that truth and understand the truth. You cannot escape the truth. You cannot change the truth, the truth is the truth. Understanding your emotions is another rule with in Buddhism. You're allowed to have emotions and you're allowed to feel the way you feel. However, you are not allowed to dwell on those feeling. You
will need to work on moving past that feeling and reaching a state of calmness through meditation on focus. The idea that we will all live, and we will all die. You can only deal with what's happening in the now and cannot world dwell on the past or worry about the future. There are concepts that Buddhism practice that I believe in my everyday life and are also reflective in Christianity. Overall, my first experience with a monk was wonderful and eye opening. I recommend everyone to not only go and listen to a monk speak but be open to learn about other religions and practices. A great deal of concepts and philosophies are shared throughout multiple religions and practices. I say this to encourage to always keep and open mind when listening to others. You may agree with their position within the practice/religion even if you do not agree with it as a whole and that is ok.
After speaking with the monk, we had free time. In that free time, I went with the person I am traveling with to the mall. Unlike Bangkok, Chiang Mai has three huge malls with all the name brand clothes we know and love. The mall is 10 minutes from the hotel, which we took one of our shuttle drivers other there. The mall was massive, it had 6 floors and filled with bright shiny lights every. The mall was easily one of the biggest malls I have very seen. Imagine the Water Tower’s shop number and then triple it in number and size. That’s how big this place was.
After the mall, we headed to the temple at the highest point. The temple was Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. This temple had 306 steps to it to get to the topic. The story goes that the king during the one of the dynasties wanted a new place to build a temple for worship. To achieve that he had an elephant walk up a mountain side un
til the elephant decided to stop and wherever he stopped the temple w
ill be built. When the elephant eventually stopped, the elephant died from exhaustion right away. It is interesting to hear this story and to hear that an elephant (which they find so sacred) was tortured in this manner. Walking up the 306 steps were way more difficult than expected. The stairs were on the steeper side as well, so it was a little difficult to walk up. However, one on top in the temple it was beautiful! There was a view overlooking all of Chiang Mai and it was just passed sunset. Inside the temple everything was in cased in gold and it was so beautiful. There were also monks in the temple having an evening ceremony. Out of all the temples I saw, this was by far my favorite. On a different note not that related to the temple, the car ride up to the top of the mountain was very interesting to say the least. To get up to this top of
the temple, we had to take a road that was so windy and so off the edge I felt like I was going to tip over and fall at any given point. It amazed me how her van driver was able to maneuver the very windy. And very narrow road, even though it was a two-way road, only one car could fit at a time. So, every sharp corner that we hit we would have to take it easy and make sure that there was no other car in front of us.
After the temple was over, we headed to a restaurant to experience a traditional northern Thai meal and a traditional Thai dance performance. The meal itself consisted of pork belly steamed, chicken wings, steamed rice, sticky rice, red chili, paste, green chili, paste, vegetables, and fried banana. The mills very delicious and the performance on top was pretty nice experience. There were four ladies that were part of the performance. They did a total of four dances that contributed different passed down traditional dancer. And then at the end of the dinner, they allowed for people to come Up and try to learn one of the dances. After dinner, I was too exhausted to attend the night market that was occurring. I literally went back up to my room and fell asleep immediately.
Overall, so Ching Mai is my favorite place on this Thailand trip and it is very much a slower pace than the big city. I would come back to learn and experience more about the culture has to offer specifically the northern Thailand part. I wish we had time to experience more of the other regions of Thailand.
Go read the next one to learn why Day 4 and Day 5 were posted on the same day and time. Lol it will give you a laugh.
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