Chiang Mai - เชียงใหม่

The old train number 13 arrived in Chiang Mai right on time on an early Tuesday morning, and this time, I was riding first class! We were in the north for a week with no plans except a return train ticket on the following Tuesday and a booking at a guesthouse for the first night. We would be traveling cheaply, and wanted to discover all of the best sites that the far north had to offer. Our hostel was in Chiang Mai's Old Town, an atmospheric area full of temples, coffee shops, and hostels, surrounded by the city's ancient crumbling stone walls and moat forming an area 4km square.

exploring a temple

We began our trip by exploring the Old Town on foot:

small temple just outside our guesthouse

Chiang Mai is Thailand's "second city". It's not the second-biggest city in the country, but it is really sort of the "northern capital" of the country. In the far past, the Kingdom of Lanna ruled over the north before being conquered by Burma, and more recently, the Kingdom of Chiang Mai ruled as a vassal state of Siam until the 1930s. Northern culture is very unique; much different from the other regions of Thailand. One very special aspect of the culture is the food! Chiang Mai's most famous dish is a noodle dish called khao soy.

khao soy for lunch!

Khao soy is served in a yellow curry with crispy noodles on top. It's usually served with soft stewed chicken meat. It's really delicious, and it's difficult to find outside of the north.

The temples are different as well. They are designed with a different architectural style that is visually a mix between Burmese and Thai, but definitely uniquely Lanna. The temples use more dark wood, red, and gold.

Chiang Mai temple

It was a little rainy on our first day in the north, and a lot cooler than in Bangkok! The weather was actually really nice!

golden chedi

Chiang Mai is much smaller than Bangkok. Especially in the Old Town, you can get anywhere easily on foot. If you want a ride, you can just hop on one of the ubiquitous "red trucks", red-painted songtaews which drive all over the city, for just 30 baht per ride.

Lanna-style temple

In the late afternoon we arrived at my favorite Chiang Mai temple, Wat Phan Tao! This old monastery just outside Wat Chedi Luang is made of dark wood and is very northern! Throughout the temple, tung flags - northern banners that people hang for good luck and merit, hang from the rafters in each of the colors of the day.

Wat Phan Tao

inside Wat Phan Tao

We wrote a special message on a strip of saffron cloth, a northern merit-making tradition, which is to be wrapped around a chedi outside.

signing the cloth

Just next door is Wat Chedi Luang, a former site of the Emerald Buddha (which now resides at Bangkok's Grand Palace complex) and location of a huge stone chedi. The chedi was partially damaged in an earthquake some time ago, but is massive and just as impressive as ever.

Wat Chedi Luang

I had slept well enough on the train, but by the early evening I was feeling so exhausted. We took a red truck back to the hostel and had an early night. We would be heading to the bus station early the next morning to start off on our way towards Chiang Rai.

monks walking at Wat Chedi Luang