We did so much the day before that we wanted to take it easy on day two and we assumed that meant doing the things that I wanted to do, which was visit the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, one of the most revered Buddhist shrines in Northern Thailand, it is located on a mountain that overlooks the city of Chiang Mai.

Wats serve many purposes in Thailand. They function as a community center, temple and a buddhist monastery. In Thailand you can find 30,000 of them, but what makes certain ones of noted interest are if they were founded by royalty or if they house revered objects, such as bones of Buddha, as Doi Suthep does.

Legend has it that Doi Suthep was created 600 years ago so high atop the mountain because the king used his own royal white elephant to find where the chedi (sacred pagoda) would be built to house the important relic, a shoulder bone from the Buddha himself. The elephant continued up the mountain where the chedi and temple were built. It took him three days to reach the spot where the wat was built and he died shortly thereafter. To commemorate his important contribution they built a monument in his honor that is left of the temple once you reach the top of the stairs.

Outside the walls of the temple are many bells, people are allowed to ring these for good luck (softly) and should not push them, the hooks that hold them up are old and breaking a bell would be very bad. They also had some etiquette rules up here that we were sure to abide, we couldn’t wear shoes in the temple, women had to have covered arms and knees (they had skirts and shawls available for those not dressed properly), no public displays of affection, and you had to maintain a lower demeanor to the monks of the temple.

The temple is amazing.

This was definitely another highlight place for me and a great calves workout. Squire and I also were able to get blessed by Buddhist monks they did a mantra for luck and tied string around wrist. We were told to leave it on for seven days at least.

Next stop was the zoo. This zoo was amazing.

All the animals were closer than what I’m used to and there weren’t many enclosed displays so we could get some great pictures. It was also the hardest zoo I’ve been to. It was hot and hilly. I felt gross and after the temple my legs where already tired. On it’s own this would have been exercise heaven but with another leg workout stop it was HARD.

And to finish it off we visited the panda exhibit. All three of them were up and about when we made it over and I took way too many pictures but here’s a few.

Every zoo has something different to offer and this one was worth it. It was a work out to boot but definitely worth it.

Ugh, from train, to bus, to ferry. My excitement is in direct proportion to my motion sickness. Must be less excited.

8 floors and there is a movie theater at the top. We found it by popcorn smell.
It’s huge and it seems to be part mall and part swap meet.

I just may play a game like this.

So Squire and I just made it to the train station. We are supposed to meet the person with our tickets in eight hours. Right now we are eating an early lunch of Thai food.
I haven’t gone into the bathroom yet but I know it will cost me two baht.
It seems like there are a lot of things we can try to walk to. If the rain lets up, hopefully we won’t have to spend eight hours at the train station.

Taking a train to get to another train to get to the train station.

Right now Squire and I are sitting outside the Gate to head back to Bangkok. Chiang Mai was amazing. We had a great taxi driver that took us to all the places that we wanted to go to and then some. So as a brief recap, we:
-pet tigers.
-saw a snake show and took pics wearing a python.
-hung out with a couple of monkeys (real ones).
-fed the elephants.
-received blessings from Buddhist monks.
-went on a night safari.
-walked the hardest zoo I can imagine.

Pictures to follow when I have dedicated Internet in Koh Samui.

Monica-

Squire’s there for perspective.