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monks' bowls laid out ready to receive coins
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photos from our walking tour of the temples of Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai is the capital of northern Thailand. It's a tourist magnet city but it manages to retain a very laid back and culturally sound atmosphere. It's old city walls surround an area of small back streets and shining temple complexes. It's origins lie in the ancient caravan trading routes between India and China as it was the central point where many routes crossed. Luxury products such as opium and tea were transported. It has a different vibe to Bangkok and the south. Northern Thais view themselves as original Thais and this is where the country really began. There are many hill tribes still thriving here in the mountains and on the border with Burma, the populations of Karen people hold a dominant position within the communities. Our guesthouse, the Chiang Mai Whitehouse, sits on a little lane off the main walking street and has a blissfully quiet front garden and sitting area and there's a cafe two doors down which does excellent food so we go back there several times. The only down side to this place is the sheer number of tourists, mostly backpackers, but this is also a good thing because it means there's an abundance of eating places and activities companies to choose from. I can't over emphasise how laid back it feels here, more akin to Laos perhaps than mainland Thailand. We do a cooking course where we learn five new dishes, including how to make the red and green curry paste (secret ingredient- shrimp paste) soups (hot and sour and coconut) spring rolls and fish cakes. Most dishes are very quick and use very similar ingredients such as kaffir lime leaves, chillis and ginger. We're invited to eat our creations which, at the offset, is a great idea (they're really yummy) but by the end of the evening our stomachs are full and we can't even manage our prize curry dish. There's a really good night market here in Chiang Mai. It's on every night. It's mainly for the tourists but there's lots of good handicrafts and hill tribe textiles, so we partake in a little bit of retail therapy. We also visit a nearby city suburb called Bo Sang which has many traditional parasol manufacturers. We see how they construct the wooden frames, cover them with mulberry paper and glue down and finish with painted decoration.
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photos from our walking tour of the temples of Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai is the capital of northern Thailand. It's a tourist magnet city but it manages to retain a very laid back and culturally sound atmosphere. It's old city walls surround an area of small back streets and shining temple complexes. It's origins lie in the ancient caravan trading routes between India and China as it was the central point where many routes crossed. Luxury products such as opium and tea were transported. It has a different vibe to Bangkok and the south. Northern Thais view themselves as original Thais and this is where the country really began. There are many hill tribes still thriving here in the mountains and on the border with Burma, the populations of Karen people hold a dominant position within the communities. Our guesthouse, the Chiang Mai Whitehouse, sits on a little lane off the main walking street and has a blissfully quiet front garden and sitting area and there's a cafe two doors down which does excellent food so we go back there several times. The only down side to this place is the sheer number of tourists, mostly backpackers, but this is also a good thing because it means there's an abundance of eating places and activities companies to choose from. I can't over emphasise how laid back it feels here, more akin to Laos perhaps than mainland Thailand. We do a cooking course where we learn five new dishes, including how to make the red and green curry paste (secret ingredient- shrimp paste) soups (hot and sour and coconut) spring rolls and fish cakes. Most dishes are very quick and use very similar ingredients such as kaffir lime leaves, chillis and ginger. We're invited to eat our creations which, at the offset, is a great idea (they're really yummy) but by the end of the evening our stomachs are full and we can't even manage our prize curry dish. There's a really good night market here in Chiang Mai. It's on every night. It's mainly for the tourists but there's lots of good handicrafts and hill tribe textiles, so we partake in a little bit of retail therapy. We also visit a nearby city suburb called Bo Sang which has many traditional parasol manufacturers. We see how they construct the wooden frames, cover them with mulberry paper and glue down and finish with painted decoration.
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A tour of the city's most popular temples reveals some interesting buildings, notably the half destroyed chedi which towers above all other buildings in the area. It would've been the biggest one we've seen yet but half has collapsed, which actually makes it more interesting to look at.
