Chiang Mai, Part One

We had a great long weekend in Chiang Mai,  Thailand.   We took so many pictures that our visit will be split up into three posts.   First up:  a look at a few of the beautiful wats in Chiang Mai.   Part 2 covers the delicious food/night markets and part 3 covers the highlight of our trip - a visit to the Elephant Nature Park.

Let's begin with a very appropriate picture of Mom.

Chiang Mai is one of the largest cities in Thailand and the cultural capital of the northern part of the country.   It is a very accessible city with cheap, delicious food, and a well organized infrastructure for tourism.   The exploration of Chiang Mai requires a visit to at least a few of the many (> 300) Buddhist temples/monasteries, or wats.   We started with a visit to a popular wat within the Old City Walls names Wat Phra Singh.

While we were visiting Wat Phra Singh,  the caretaker for the grounds came up to us and started talking.   Typically I get defensive,  expecting a sales pitch or something more shady,  but in this case it was just a nice man wanting us to enjoy our stay in Chiang Mai.   We followed one of his recommendations,  by visiting the Wat Sri Suphan,  or Silver Temple.   You have one guess as to how it received its name: 

 Here's the inside.   Note that only the boys were allowed inside this temple.

While Chandra and Esme were banished outside of the temple,  they approached a silver craftsman,  who was working on refurbishing some of the ornamental features of the temple: 

 Our next stop was the most popular site in Chiang Mai,  the Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep.   It is 5 miles from the center of town,  up on a hill overlooking the city.   Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a good picture of the temple from below,  but here's a view from the temple out onto the city:

There are actually two ways to get up to the temple,  you can walk up many, many steps,  or  pay 75 cents to ride the tram/elevator thing.    Here is a picture of us posing in front of the Dragon staircase,  you can guess whether we actually climbed the steps.

This is the entrance to the center square of the temple.

This temple is famous for its copper chedi (dome).  

The kids loved ringing the bells. 

 

Beautiful blossoms framing the architecture

Some monks in training.   They actually were on their way to buy a popsicle.

 

 Next post:  Eating, shopping, and tuk-tukking in Chiang Mai.