Chiang Mai - culture pure!

I was a little ashamed of myself for having a European breakfast this morning, especially when the Thai food looked equally tempting, but having had a rather spicy dinner, I thought it might be sensible.

This splendid hotel offers a morning walk to three minor temples and we naturally accepted this offer. Tanna, our guide, is a lovely slim and agile Chai Mai resident with a good command of English and a fantastic sense of humour accentuated by a little giggle that made her seem younger than the 60 years we estimated. After a short introduction and a most interesting potted history of the city and the Lanna culture she marched about 10 of us off to the first of three temples, taking care to keep us in the shade whenever possible.

At the Duang Dee temple, which has a richly decorated ubod, she explained what every Buddhist does when they enter a temple and gave an insight into the differences between the Lanna and the Siamese depictions of Buddha. We then entered another building to offer food for the monks from the hotel, which a rather grim monk in a red robe took and blessed, singing in a monotonous tone into a microphone.

On the way to the second temple we passed a street full of local eateries and Tanna recommended a few of the best. Wat Saden Muang, which was the next place of interest, has a particularly beautiful facade, in front of which we all posed for a picture. Here you can purchase a bronze leaf according to the Chinese year in which you were born to improve your karma. We spent time discussing the advantages of the Chiese horoscope signs and the significance of the day on which you were born.

Tanna then pointed out a 3D map of the city and took us to see the Three Kings Monument, which depicts the peaceful period of history when the kings of Chiang Mai, Sukothai and Phayao built an allegiance against the Burmese. There were another couple of restaurants that she recommended, including one which specialises in mango with sticky rice.

We were now on our way to the third temple, which was actually a sort of meditation school with a chedi that was supposed to have an escape tunnel built underneath in case of war. This, in fact, is fake news . Here Tanna explained the colourful murals depicting the life of Buddha and the lessons to be learned from it.

And finally we examined the hotel gallery, a fascinating collection of pictures depicting the Lanna way of life some 2 millennia ago.

After a good rest by the pool and, in Willi's case, a refreshing swim, we had the good fortune to get engaged in a lively conversation with Marini and Amal, a very charming young couple originally from Sri Lanka, who live in Melbourne. We bonded straight away and quickly became Facebook friends, as you do.

Later in the afternoon we set off to visit three major temples not too far away. The first was Chiang Mai's most famous temple, Wat Phra Singh. This temple is always busy but a delight to visit with its ancient, mainly wooden buildings and a golden pagoda decorated with elephants.

As we were climbing up the steps to visit a wihan full of wax monks sitting on benches and kneeling before the altar, I heard a bird which always reminds us of our time in Kenya and which is jolly hard to find. Willi went off in search of the colourful coppersmith barbet and found it perched right at the top of a tree. We have lovely photos on my camera to prove it.

It was getting quite dark when we eventually found the main entrance to Wat Chedi Luang, which houses the old city pillar shrine in a building that is accessible to men only, since legend has it that menstrual blood near the shrine could cause a disaster to the city...... a very long story!

In addition to the shrine there is an ancient Lanna chedi on the premises which has seen better days.

For the Wat Pantao we could not have chosen a better time to visit. The very old wooden main hall was empty last time we came. It has been restored and is now complete with a dark wooden open roof. The interior is also dark. A large, brightly shining Buddha reigns over the temple, particularly impressive st this time in the evening. I was extremely moved.

We have now had dinner. My choice was a khao soi, chicken with noodles in a creamy curried gravy, THE dish to try in this city. It is still quite balmy, the musicians are playing oldies on two electric guitars, there is a sweet, flowery scent in the air and all is well.Read more