Chiang Mai Continued:

Our Hotel, the Chiang Mai Gate Hotel was just outside of the Old City which originally had been surrounded by a large brick wall, five gates, and a moat. All that is left of the wall now are bits and pieces, mostly at the four edges and a couple of gate entrances. We walked a lot (yes, on my poor swollen feet) and negotiated with Tuk Tuk drivers to get us, usually, back to the hotel when we'd done all we could for the day. I love taking photos of brooms, doors, gates, spirit houses, etc. and so I couldn't resist this one of colorful mops on our way in to the city proper.

Here is the picture I promised you on my last blog. We found a wonderful little alleyway cafe for lunch and while we were waiting for lunch to arrive, out came the map and we planned our afternoon of walking and sightseeing. Thank goodness for the map and for Kim saying, "This way Janice." or I would probably still be walking around in circles looking for the next Wat! The joke (truth) was I'd turn the wrong way out the door 90% of the time. As Kim would often stand and watch which way I'd turn, she can verify that!

As Kim said about the Wats, after you've seen the first 200 they all start looking alike. They are all striking, however, and we both noted that there were subtle differences between the Wats in Bangkok and Chiang Mai with those in Chiang Mai reflecting Lonna influences. Many of the Wats were constructed during the
mid to late 1500 hundreds.

Kim also included a photo of the wood supports for the gum tree. We'd never seen anything like it on the grounds of other Wats, but as this tree is very old and important to the Buddhist religion, the supports have been brought by individuals and monks from other Wats around the area to earn merit on religious holidays.

This type of Naga was also new to us, as it usually is seen as the body and heads of a snake gracefully moving down the sides of staircases leading up to the Wat, itself.

I am a collector of textiles and fabrics. Kim has her Betel treasures and I have my textiles. I saw this little lady and immediately wanted to go up to her and ask to see her collar and apron up close. The work these women do, is truly amazing and sadly a dying art. A photo had to do.

Before we headed up the mountain on the next leg of our journey (we will both have a lot to say about our hill tribe visits) we stopped to pick up lunch on the road side. The grilled chicken looked, and was very good, but we weren't quite sure what was grilling on the other open grill. We didn't ask! Lunch was completed with soup, sticky rice and roasted sweet potatoes which a quick thinking Kim spotted cooking on the open grill. We also lucked out and found coke zeros (Kim was this one of the times you sacrificed your coke zero for me? What a good friend!) The hunt for Diet Cokes is a whole story in itself. We will save that for later.

Next blog entry, the White Karen Hill Tribe Trek.