Today's the day that we finally go to the temple up on the mountain that we've repeatedly seen glistening in the sun, from down below in the city of Chiang Mai.
The initial plan was to hire scooters & drive ourselves up there. That morning before getting ready, I did a quick google search to read up on people's advice, from their own experience regarding scooter hire & use in Chiang Mai. Lucky I did! I come across a forum discussing people's disastrous experiences to do with insurance, the police & dodgy scooters.
What particularly bothered me was a complaint from an Aussie couple, who despite having insurance that covered them to do adventure activities, when they were involved in an accident while on scooters in Chiang Mai, the insurance company wouldn't cover the husbands $100,000 medical bills. This was due to a sneaky clause, written in fine print that dictates if you're injured while operating a vehicle that you dont have an open license for in your own country, the insurance wont cover you.
We re-read our policy, which we keep printed & with us & discovered the same sneaky clause! It was really frustrating considering we paid extra money for the 'adventure' insurance.
We had international driving license's & by law in Australia, we can drive a scooter up to 50cc without a motorbike license, but after reading about all the tourists who had been in accidents, the dodgy Chiang Mai police & the fact that our insurance would try to weasel out of paying for medical bills, we decide against the scooters.
Tom met a lady who is staying at the same accommodation as us & who wants to share a tuk tuk with us. The guesthouse conveniently organises it for us so that we don't have to barter & the driver will wait for us & then drive us back down. The cost split by the 3 of us is only slightly more expensive than the scooter hire. Nat, Dom & Red are still going to hire scooters, so we say goodbye to them & hopefully we'll see them later in the day at the temple.
It took us nearly 30 minutes of driving, which was incredibly nauseating, till we got to the top. I think my motion sickness is getting worse & worse. I'm definitely feeling it in Asia!
our tuk tuk driver parks & then we have 2 hours to explore the temple which is a short walk away from the carpark.
Wat Phra That Doi Suthep or Doi Suthep for short, which is actually the name of the mountain that the temple resides on. Doi Suthep the mountain has an elevation of 1676 metres & is one of two peak of the granite mountain. It is located approximately 15 kilometres away from Chiang Mai & offers a great view of the city as well as being removed enough that the temple is very peaceful.
The original founding of the first temple structure, remains a mystery & there is many different legends about when it first appeared int he history of Chiang Mai. The most common legend says that it was founded in 1383 when the first stupa was built on the mountain.
Regardless of if thats the true date, over the decades, the temple complex has grown bigger & more elaborate.
One of the more interesting legends about the beginnings of the temple, is called the white elephant legend. It involves a monk who find's a relic, Gautama Buddha's (also known as Siddhartha Gautama, the Indian prince who became the buddha) shoulder bone, a white elephant & an omen that dictated to the king at the time, that a temple needed to be built here.
The shoulder bone broke in half & one piece of it is held here at this temple. For this reason, Doi Suthep is considered Thailands most scared buddhist temple for pilgrimage.
When we arrived at the base of the temple, we face a rather ornate staircase with the Naga posing menacingly on either side & 309 steps of intimidation. The temple gets up to 120,000 visits per month & was resembling a battlefield with tired tourists slumped all over it.
It's not the biggest staircase we've climbed to get to a temple & wasn't going to stop us!
Once at the top, we caught our breath, removed our shoes, brought our tickets & went inside the freshly painted gates.
It is definitely one of the nicest temple's we have been to & everything was in pristine condition with ongoing maintenance visible.
The giant gold mount in the centre was blindingly vibrant & reflected sun rays onto everything around it. From our position, at the entry gate, it was quite hard to see, even with sun glasses & our eyes were not having an easy time adjusting. We retreated into some shade & after doing a lap of the main temple grounds, we found a little corner to sit in & people watch. The marble tiles we sat on & the air was really cool & there was a nice breeze tinkling the charms above our heads.
It was very peaceful. Sometimes, it just nice to sit quietly & appreciate where you are & what you're looking at.
We've always love buddhist temples.
After this we went for a walk on the outside of the main temple. The complex is full of white elephants honouring the legend & gold buddha's. There is also lots of lovely plants, lanterns & birds chirping. The view looking down onto the city is really nice, though not as clear as we would have liked.
We continue to have quiet moments, walking around bare foot & feeling incredibly peaceful.
We have 30 minutes left before we need to walk back to the tuk tuk & the complex is starting to get full of noisy tourists, some of which are rudely ignoring signs not to smoke, wear modest clothing & not to ring the bells. We hide away in a little cafe, with some beautiful plants & order iced coffee's.
could this day get any better ?
It was eventually time to leave the temple. It's definitely one of our favourites & I'll always remember the peace we felt here as we sipped our coffee's & made plans for our future house & garden to be zen inspired.
On our way down the stairs, we saw Nat, Dom & Red who had only just arrived. They had unfortunately had problems with police, who pulled them over twice & issued fines for not having appropriate licenses.
Based on what they told us, it sounds very much like the police were doing road blocks to target tourists & fine them, unfortunately I did read about this in the forum & it seems to be extremely common.
The journey back down the mountain went quickly & before long we were back at the royal Guest house. It was nearly 3pm & my tummy was loudly complaining about it's prolonged empty state. Tom had seen a Vegan restaurant 2 streets away that had very high ratings. We went to check this out & were not disappointed in the slightest. The smoothies. food, service & price was amazing!
A huge highlight for me & a dining experience that stands out for me from this whole year is the Vegan red duck curry that I ate here. It was simply amazing & to die for. They use a fake meat alternative as the 'duck' but it tasted & felt so real that I checked with the waiter, just to be sure, even though the whole restaurant is vegan.
I looked up the fake duck meat & discovered that it is available back home now! I can not wait to make this curry again when we get home!
After this Tom & I went back to the guest house for a lazy afternoon & evening.
- Alli
The initial plan was to hire scooters & drive ourselves up there. That morning before getting ready, I did a quick google search to read up on people's advice, from their own experience regarding scooter hire & use in Chiang Mai. Lucky I did! I come across a forum discussing people's disastrous experiences to do with insurance, the police & dodgy scooters.
What particularly bothered me was a complaint from an Aussie couple, who despite having insurance that covered them to do adventure activities, when they were involved in an accident while on scooters in Chiang Mai, the insurance company wouldn't cover the husbands $100,000 medical bills. This was due to a sneaky clause, written in fine print that dictates if you're injured while operating a vehicle that you dont have an open license for in your own country, the insurance wont cover you.
We re-read our policy, which we keep printed & with us & discovered the same sneaky clause! It was really frustrating considering we paid extra money for the 'adventure' insurance.
We had international driving license's & by law in Australia, we can drive a scooter up to 50cc without a motorbike license, but after reading about all the tourists who had been in accidents, the dodgy Chiang Mai police & the fact that our insurance would try to weasel out of paying for medical bills, we decide against the scooters.
Tom met a lady who is staying at the same accommodation as us & who wants to share a tuk tuk with us. The guesthouse conveniently organises it for us so that we don't have to barter & the driver will wait for us & then drive us back down. The cost split by the 3 of us is only slightly more expensive than the scooter hire. Nat, Dom & Red are still going to hire scooters, so we say goodbye to them & hopefully we'll see them later in the day at the temple.
It took us nearly 30 minutes of driving, which was incredibly nauseating, till we got to the top. I think my motion sickness is getting worse & worse. I'm definitely feeling it in Asia!
our tuk tuk driver parks & then we have 2 hours to explore the temple which is a short walk away from the carpark.
Wat Phra That Doi Suthep or Doi Suthep for short, which is actually the name of the mountain that the temple resides on. Doi Suthep the mountain has an elevation of 1676 metres & is one of two peak of the granite mountain. It is located approximately 15 kilometres away from Chiang Mai & offers a great view of the city as well as being removed enough that the temple is very peaceful.
The original founding of the first temple structure, remains a mystery & there is many different legends about when it first appeared int he history of Chiang Mai. The most common legend says that it was founded in 1383 when the first stupa was built on the mountain.
Regardless of if thats the true date, over the decades, the temple complex has grown bigger & more elaborate.
One of the more interesting legends about the beginnings of the temple, is called the white elephant legend. It involves a monk who find's a relic, Gautama Buddha's (also known as Siddhartha Gautama, the Indian prince who became the buddha) shoulder bone, a white elephant & an omen that dictated to the king at the time, that a temple needed to be built here.
The shoulder bone broke in half & one piece of it is held here at this temple. For this reason, Doi Suthep is considered Thailands most scared buddhist temple for pilgrimage.
When we arrived at the base of the temple, we face a rather ornate staircase with the Naga posing menacingly on either side & 309 steps of intimidation. The temple gets up to 120,000 visits per month & was resembling a battlefield with tired tourists slumped all over it.
It's not the biggest staircase we've climbed to get to a temple & wasn't going to stop us!
Once at the top, we caught our breath, removed our shoes, brought our tickets & went inside the freshly painted gates.
It is definitely one of the nicest temple's we have been to & everything was in pristine condition with ongoing maintenance visible.
The giant gold mount in the centre was blindingly vibrant & reflected sun rays onto everything around it. From our position, at the entry gate, it was quite hard to see, even with sun glasses & our eyes were not having an easy time adjusting. We retreated into some shade & after doing a lap of the main temple grounds, we found a little corner to sit in & people watch. The marble tiles we sat on & the air was really cool & there was a nice breeze tinkling the charms above our heads.
It was very peaceful. Sometimes, it just nice to sit quietly & appreciate where you are & what you're looking at.
We've always love buddhist temples.
After this we went for a walk on the outside of the main temple. The complex is full of white elephants honouring the legend & gold buddha's. There is also lots of lovely plants, lanterns & birds chirping. The view looking down onto the city is really nice, though not as clear as we would have liked.
We continue to have quiet moments, walking around bare foot & feeling incredibly peaceful.
We have 30 minutes left before we need to walk back to the tuk tuk & the complex is starting to get full of noisy tourists, some of which are rudely ignoring signs not to smoke, wear modest clothing & not to ring the bells. We hide away in a little cafe, with some beautiful plants & order iced coffee's.
could this day get any better ?
It was eventually time to leave the temple. It's definitely one of our favourites & I'll always remember the peace we felt here as we sipped our coffee's & made plans for our future house & garden to be zen inspired.
On our way down the stairs, we saw Nat, Dom & Red who had only just arrived. They had unfortunately had problems with police, who pulled them over twice & issued fines for not having appropriate licenses.
Based on what they told us, it sounds very much like the police were doing road blocks to target tourists & fine them, unfortunately I did read about this in the forum & it seems to be extremely common.
The journey back down the mountain went quickly & before long we were back at the royal Guest house. It was nearly 3pm & my tummy was loudly complaining about it's prolonged empty state. Tom had seen a Vegan restaurant 2 streets away that had very high ratings. We went to check this out & were not disappointed in the slightest. The smoothies. food, service & price was amazing!
A huge highlight for me & a dining experience that stands out for me from this whole year is the Vegan red duck curry that I ate here. It was simply amazing & to die for. They use a fake meat alternative as the 'duck' but it tasted & felt so real that I checked with the waiter, just to be sure, even though the whole restaurant is vegan.
I looked up the fake duck meat & discovered that it is available back home now! I can not wait to make this curry again when we get home!
After this Tom & I went back to the guest house for a lazy afternoon & evening.
- Alli
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