Chiang Mai, continued

Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand

On Friday morning, we headed out to Doi Suthep. This is a Buddhist wat built high above the city. It took about one hour to get there; we had to first take a Tuk Tuk to the Chiang Mai Zoo, and then a Songthaew up the hill. A Songthaew is like a Tuk Tuk; instead of a cab mounted onto a moped, a cab is mounted onto a pickup truck. At the top, we reached the wat. This one was built with a large staircase leading up to the temple:

Like most of the staircases at these temples, the statues at the base of the steps were very cool looking. This one was of a large naga, a long snakelike river creature, swallowing several smaller nagas:

At the top, we walked around the temple grounds. This temple has an iconic pillar, which is actually the symbol of the city of Chiang Mai. All in all, this temple was very impressive, and had great views of the entire city of Chiang Mai:

There were a lot of young Buddhist monks at the temple as well:

I don't know much about Buddhist tradition, but I did see several monks and other Buddhists sound the numerous bells around the temple:

I'm sure this has an important significance, but I don't know what it is. I did take a short video of the bell ringing though:

We then walked back down to the foot of the stairs. There were small shops here, and Ben and I bought some paintings for good prices. I bought one for 250 baht, only to find another woman selling them a minute later for 100 baht. That bothered me a little, but I bought one of those as well, getting both for 350 baht, which is a little more than 11 dollars.

Also at the foot of the wat entrance was an elephant. Cucumbers were on sale for 20 baht. I decided I had to get in on this, and bought some cucumbers to feed the elephant. He seemed to enjoy this very much:

After this, we decided to have lunch at a mall, and then see The Simpsons Movie. One interesting thing about that experience: right before the feature presentation, there is a short video with images of the Thai royal family, and the anthem of Thailand playing in the background. It is customary to stand in respect during this video. We were definitely not expecting this, but I guess it's similar to singing the Star Spangled Banner at ball games in the U.S.

We then headed back to the hotel, and later went out to dinner at a local Indian restaurant. We walked around the Night Bazaar afterwards, and I was able to get a good deal on a nice Chinese style lamp. One more post on Chiang Mai coming up...