Chip Pride: Day 2...or a day where paying $2 to let fish eat my feet might not be the most interesting part of my day

Sometimes, taking a taxi from the airport, you just know that a city is going to be good. My flight left Bangkok at 8 a.m. and as my taxi found his way to my hostel in Chiang Mai, I couldn't help but get the feeling that this city and I would get along well. Tucked in the northern part of Thailand, Chiang Mai is surrounded by beautiful nature. It's much more laid back and chill than Bangkok.

Random temple

My hostel here is also amazing. Within an hour of arriving, I had, with the receptionist's help, my full
three days kind of figured out. It was a far cry from Bangkok where they told me to "go left." Today, I explored the temples inside the city walls. I walked the full diameter of the circle so it's not THAT big, but within it are over 100 Buddhist temples. You don't understand the magnitude of these temples or their numbers. They're more numerous than JPII statues in Poland. And each temple doesn't have just one Buddha...most of them have many, like 10 to a few dozen.

The nameless city museum

So today's adventures started out with a museum. Well, I had planned on it. The nice hostel guy highlighted four "must sees" in the city, so I figured I'd knock them out today since tomorrow I'm busy all day with a cooking class (Jeff's probably more excited than me and he's not even going!). The directions were easy, but there were NO SIGNS on the front of the museum to note that it was a museum. I actually took the picture and kept walking because I thought it was just like a royal residence.

More Buddhas

So I came across random temple #1. The temple also had a free museum. I love museums cause I'm traveling to learn things. The only problem? THE LIGHTS WEREN'T ON! The museum was unlocked, there were other tourists inside, but the lights never came on and there was no one around to help out. So no go on the museum.

No problem, I started walking again. And found more temples. So. Many. Temples. Everywhere.

As I'm walking in circles cause I decided to get back to the road my hostel is on since I KNEW I wasn't going in the right direction for the museum anymore. I stumbled on the museum I was looking for. Funny how that works!

Learned some cool things in the museum. The real name of the city is Nop Buri Si Nakhorn Phing Chiang Mai. It was founded over 700 years ago as part of the Lanna kingdom. Chiang Mai has always been an important hub for trade between northern and southern Thailand as well as internationally.

There was an (I'm assuming) Thai proverb up on the wall as well. Poorly translated I suspect, but I really liked it. "Everyone has a hidden firefly village where the extraordinary events empower wisdom to reveal."

So I started walking again...there was another temple to see! On my way, I saw a salon with flesh-eating fish. One time, I saw a news story about these fish on tv and have always wanted to try it. You stick bare feet into the fish bowl and the fish nibble away at your dead skin. It tickles soooo bad. Two English guys came in to try while I was there and the one couldn't keep his feet in the water cause he was so ticklish.

Temple

I'm glad I took the chance to sit down and rest in the air conditioning because my next stop was another (surprise) temple.

In Thai, temples are called Wats. This particular wat is called Wat Pra Singh. It's been a wat for 700 years. The current temple grounds was reconstructed in 1772, which is the building I walked through. It's a pretty big deal in the way of temples, housing two important Buddha statues. In the 40s, the king elevated Wat Prah Singh to the status of a royal wat.

MORE WATS. There are so many wats in my life, I can't tell you. The thing is, where there is one wat, there are more wats. Every large temple I've been to has at least three or four smaller temples on the same grounds. You end up wandering through and into odd situations at times. In one, I was startled when the image of Buddha moved...only to realize it was an old Buddhist monk. In another, a monk was receiving a massage or physical therapy (after my Thai massage last night, it's not easy to distinguish) in the corner of the temple.

The monk that freaked me out

The grounds for these temples are also pretty open. There are rarely signs that say go here, don't go there. So I also wandered into things like the monks clean laundry hanging out to dry. It's definitely been an interesting experience.

And then there were more wats. This time, I enlisted the help of a trusty tuk tuk driver to get me to the last stop of the day.

The last temple of the day was CRAWLING with Thai people. None of the temples had been super busy today, especially compared to Bangkok temples. So I was pretty surprised that it was so full. Turns out, it was the first day of the Intakin Festival at the Wat Chedi Luang. This is a huge celebration that takes place over a week.

The ceremony centers around the city's pillar (an area where only men are allowed to enter). Its purpose is to entreat Buddha and other deities to ensure the seasons continue on time. Buddhists of all ages came to the temple area and were placing flowers and donations all over the temple grounds. Men would go into the city pillar area and pray. There were large groups of school aged kids participating in the festivities as well. It wasn't an organized expression, but beautiful.

And then I realized I missed one of the important temples. Luckily, it was on my way home. So I grabbed another tuk tuk and made my way to the new last stop of my day.

The second floor balcony

Enroute to the tuk tuk, I stumbled across a free architecture museum. Since it was free, I couldn't not stop inside. Unfortunately most of the descriptions were in Thai, which is a language I can't even pretend to understand. However, it was still really cool to see the inside of a traditional Thai home.

My last wat visit was also the first Royal wat built in Chaing Mai. It's called Wat Chiang Mun and was first constructed in the last 1290s. It's filled with a lot of Buddhas, like all the wats. But it was really pretty. And if you scroll through all the pictures I have left that didn't fit in today's story telling, you'll see a picture of me there in my new awesomely stylish pants.

It's really hot here. Today was "only 100" and it was thankfully a lot less humid than in Bangkok. I still haven't slept a full night since Monday (it's Friday evening here) and that combined with the heat is really starting to catch up to me. If you're a praying type, send some mine way in a few hours that this exhaustion translates to a good night's sleep.

Tomorrow, I'm doing a full day cooking class. It includes a trip to a market and cooking a bunch of different Thai dishes. Cannot say I'm too disappointed that there won't be many wats in my life tomorrow!

MORE PICTURES!

Monk laundry

A different style dragon than I normally see.

Walking out of a wat...into a place where the wind reaches!

The white buddha was a big deal...for some reason.

Inside the main temple where the festival is this week. You can see lots of banners hanging from the ceiling. This is a place where people donate money. They take change and put it in each bowl, one at a time.

Feet are a thing in Buddhism. You can't wear shoes in the temple and you cannot point your legs towards Buddha while sitting. A lot of stores and homes make you take your shoes off too. My poor feet don't mind though, it's a nice break!