Me and hub and six others took a short vacation to Northern Thailand a weekend last.
Known as the “Rose of the North”, Chiang Mai & ChiangRai is a wonderful small city with a history more than 700 years old. Visitors are sure to find themselves busy exploring old temples, bustling markets, enjoying traditional food and having some adventure fun and I already had in mind the must-see-must go places from day one of planning.
One of the efforts to preserve and showcase Northern Thai (Lanna's) pride is the khantoke dinner. The traditional “khantoke” serving a tray with many small dishes of various foods befitting for a King in ancient times. As we dine, we were treated to a performance of various traditional Thai dance and hill tribes from the North. This was dinner on our first night.
The meal comprising of several typical Northern Thai dishes. There are two chili dips, green and red served with the meal, both of these dips are traditionally eaten using the hands to dip steamed vegetables, fried pork skins, or sticky rice in them. Our khantoke dinner also includes fried chicken. And we ate sticky rice, or you can have the normal fluffy white rice too. Tropical fruits are served last.
Upon arrival, we were whisk to the majestic Wat Doi Suthep located on Mount Suthep. A Buddhist Monastery built in 1383.
Travelling uphill on tramp train to the peak and using the 300 steps with decorated nagas stairs to exist for a scenic view that ends with some handicraft and souvenir stalls and finger food below.
The traditional design that is symbolic to Chiangmai
These are not the usual traditional designs, it has to be a custom design. One can have a design drawn on a tee or your cell phone cover for a fee of 50 baht to 100baht too and they have plenty of designs to choose from.
Karen Long Neck Village
The mystery and beauty that sound the tradition of using brass rings for exaggerated jewelry is something better seen in person than in a book, this I must see. The Karen are a tribal group who have historically lived in the hills on the Myanmar (formerly Burma) but fled to Thailand as refugees to escape conflict in Burma. Sadly they are not recognized as citizen of Thai.
The Karen women wear heavy brass rings around their neck , forearms, and shins .
While the Karen men are mainly field workers and farmers, the women have a rich history of crafting from wood carving to weaving and are allowed to earn a living from their crafts now that they resides on Thai soil.
White Temple, The magical world of Wat Rong Khun
The most unique and famously well known temple in Chiangmai. This is not an average regular temple. Every detail of this wat carries a deep religious symbolism from the esteem artist's Chalermchai's imaginative who chose to construct the temple in white to symbolize purity of Lord Buddha. The mirrors embedded in the structure reflect light representing Buddha's wisdom shining out across the Earth and Universe.
Cross the bridge into a higher realm, Gate of Heaven, guarded by two huge creature that represent Death and Rahu who decides over men's fate. An ocean of ghostly hands reaching up from the cycle of death and rebirth symbolize the realm of the Buddha and rising to a state of nirvana.
It rained as we entered the border . Our first stop is Dhammayon Temple. It was said that this is the temple where the Jade Buddha originally placed but has been moved to the King's palace in Bangkok and now only house a replica of the Jade Buddha
Known as the “Rose of the North”, Chiang Mai & ChiangRai is a wonderful small city with a history more than 700 years old. Visitors are sure to find themselves busy exploring old temples, bustling markets, enjoying traditional food and having some adventure fun and I already had in mind the must-see-must go places from day one of planning.
One of the efforts to preserve and showcase Northern Thai (Lanna's) pride is the khantoke dinner. The traditional “khantoke” serving a tray with many small dishes of various foods befitting for a King in ancient times. As we dine, we were treated to a performance of various traditional Thai dance and hill tribes from the North. This was dinner on our first night.
Upon arrival, we were whisk to the majestic Wat Doi Suthep located on Mount Suthep. A Buddhist Monastery built in 1383.
Along the stairs little girls beautifully deck in trible clothes awaits to be photograph for a fee
Sa Paper Umbrella Factory,
The leading symbol of Chiangmai's Handicraft. Sa Paper got its start in Chiangmai so many centuries ago because of the abundance of the Sa tree. It is a small tree with light brown bark that grows in tall clumps like large bushes and with full drooping green leaves that blossom out from the middle upward. Many of Borsarng's centers have Sa trees on the grounds, now decorated with umbrellas.The production process today is just as it was 200 years ago. All stages are accomplished by hand with the aid of some basic rural tools.
Karen Long Neck Village
The mystery and beauty that sound the tradition of using brass rings for exaggerated jewelry is something better seen in person than in a book, this I must see. The Karen are a tribal group who have historically lived in the hills on the Myanmar (formerly Burma) but fled to Thailand as refugees to escape conflict in Burma. Sadly they are not recognized as citizen of Thai.
White Temple, The magical world of Wat Rong Khun
A pit stop, Mae Sa Orchids Nursery and Butterfly farm. unfortunately while the orchids are blooming but apparently there's no butterflies this time of the year.
GOLDEN TRIANGLE in Chiangrai, as the name suggest, its where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meets. This is where the Mekong river flows separating the three country denote by the arrow on the Triangle below
Looking a crossed the Mekong River from where I stood on Thai soil, Myanmar on my left
Behind me or on my right is, Laos with it's first and only casino in sight
We proceed to Mae Sae, a border town with Myanmar and spend a couple of hours in the afternoon exploring the bustling border market.
The border town of Mae Sae,
The arch into Myanmar and you need your passport to enter.
It's a different world totally the moment you enter Tachileik.
It's like going back in time to the early 70's. Tachileik Market is located just next to the arch and filled with stalls trading all kinds of everything.
The tuk-tuk that took us around Myanmar border town
This is known as Myanmar Tachileik-Shwedagon-Pagoda
The best part about this trip was, we didn't have much free time like most tour would normally allowed like half a day free to explore. Our itinerary was literally a full day. Is that good or bad ? I suppose it depends.
Naturally by the end of the day, I was exhausted and tired, yet I refused to return to my hotel and call it a night because I wanted to explore the Night market. The night market or bazaar is like a night time supermarket and it's huge! There's an abundance of food, handicrafts, fashion items, literally all kinds of everything including cafes and pubs with Ladyboy dancers. One can spend your entire night there. They open around 4pm and close around 11pm and I had like only 2 hours or so to explore nightly. Imagine me spending 3 nights of my remaining hours at the night market, first day just to survey the goods, second night to take notes of what I wanted and made mental records on the prices before making my purchases on the third night.
We took a planned tour instead of travelling on our own simply because none of us wanted to work our brains with all the necessary arrangements, we rather preferred having someone doing all the ground work for us while we just absorbed into it. Would I change anything? Yes, I would go on a 6 days tour instead of 4, putting a night in Chiangrai to explore Laos and another night in Myanmar to go further into Bagan.
I would like to thank everyone who commented in my last post. Am very sorry I couldn't replied you personally in the last week or so. Days prior to my departure have been hectic at work getting the necessary paper works done.
The haze that has been disrupting our life styles is still persistent. I had a couple of good air days on my holidays but coming home to a foggy skyline is simply spirit waning.
Naturally by the end of the day, I was exhausted and tired, yet I refused to return to my hotel and call it a night because I wanted to explore the Night market. The night market or bazaar is like a night time supermarket and it's huge! There's an abundance of food, handicrafts, fashion items, literally all kinds of everything including cafes and pubs with Ladyboy dancers. One can spend your entire night there. They open around 4pm and close around 11pm and I had like only 2 hours or so to explore nightly. Imagine me spending 3 nights of my remaining hours at the night market, first day just to survey the goods, second night to take notes of what I wanted and made mental records on the prices before making my purchases on the third night.
I would like to thank everyone who commented in my last post. Am very sorry I couldn't replied you personally in the last week or so. Days prior to my departure have been hectic at work getting the necessary paper works done.
The haze that has been disrupting our life styles is still persistent. I had a couple of good air days on my holidays but coming home to a foggy skyline is simply spirit waning.
5 comments:
Wow! What an experience. Very amazing sights. The Karen Long Neck village is really different. I had never heard of the Golden Triangle.
All this looks and sounds so exotic to us in Greece. I know I will never manage to visit these places but I would have loved to!AriadnefromGreece!
Thank you for taking us with you to see all these Miracles of The far Orient as we call them. The shawls and the lady in Karen village was woven looks very pretty..and the bag with the pink bow would have been my choice too.
Wow, Lillie, what a post you compiled. I so loved to read about all the sites you visited and to look at all the pictures. What an exciting trip this must have been.
What an enchanted land! You've shared with us so many exotic photos, Lillie--I always enjoy seeing other parts of the world and these are particularly magical. What an experience to see so many new sights and people :) Thanks for sharing!!
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