CHANG MAI

Claire & I headed to Chang Mai for three days to take in the sights of Thailand’s second city. Upon arrival I couldn’t shake the feeling that we’d arrived in Ballarat. Albeit a Ballarat full of Wats, Monks and Song Taew’s (truck taxis).

On the first day we took a tour around the Thai craft factory/shops that thrive in Chang Mai. It seems that most of the ‘Thai craft’ products are made in Chang Mai and then shipped around Thailand, explaining the constant reoccurring nature of some crap products. Anyway, the factories had some really beautiful stuff, and we got to see the craftsmen making traditional Thai silver products which was great for Claire, and you should have seen the look of enrapture meant as she got to go tappa-tappa on a ‘try yourself’ silver pot. I never thought that tapping shapes into a bit of silver could make someone look so happy. After a long time tapping the silver, in which time a queue of other tourists built, we moved on.

On the second day, after a really long sleep in, we headed out to see a couple of the Wats (temples). We flagged down a song taew in town, sitting next to the driver was an elderly monk. I said “please take us to Wat Umong” in Thai, to which the driver looked blank. The monk lent across to him and said “Wat Umooung”, the driver got it and we were on our way. The driver gave me his number to pick us up from Wat Umong, which was about 20mins out of time.

Wat Umong’s main feature is a series of underground tunnels that were used by/to hide a former monk who was a favourite of the king in his time but who went a bit troppo. To save the embarrassment of ‘retiring’ him, the locals built the tunnels for him to walk/preach/rant about in.

I called the song taew driver to come pick us up, to which he replied “I’ll be there in 30mins”. Shit. We sat down to wait, when out of the blue a song taew turned up and the same elderly monk hopped out of it. Saying thanks for our guardian monk we hopped in the truck and were on the way to the main temple, Wat Doi Su Tep.

Wat Doi Su Tep is located on top of the hill over looking Chang Mai. After ascending the hill, through beautiful forest, there’s a 306 step climb to the temple itself. It’s all gold, Buddha and wall paintings. Thankfully we managed to time our arrival between tour buses so it was relatively uncrowded. Legend has it that the local king placed a Buddha relic on top of a white elephant, which then set of under it’s own will to find the site of the new temple. It walked to the top of the hill, and then expired after fulfilling it’s duty. I can just see the town’s folk following it, quietly hoping that it would stop, but dutifully following the will of the elephant. Thanks to that white elephant there’s now a long trip up the hill to the temple, but a very peaceful and beautiful atmosphere surrounding it.

GUARDIAN MONKS: 1, or
MONKS STALKING US: 1