Category: Buddhism

The Road to Pai-Part 1 of the Mae Hong Son Loop

We wanted to get out of the city for a few days, so we rented a car and started on the road to Pai, Part 1 of the famous Mae Hong Son Loop.  I’ve included some extra pictures in the Travel heading under the menu.

Puzzle Answer

Before I continue on the road trip, I want to thank the 2 of you who guessed at the picture I posted.  Lots of people looked at the post, so thanks for that. Yes, the first picture was cut up papaya.  There are street vendors for fresh fruit or fruit smoothies everywhere in Chiang Mai.  The fruit is packaged into plastic bags and served with a stick for eating.  They usually put the fruit bag into a small plastic bag with a handle so you can hook it onto your scooter hook or handlebars. It costs about $0.75. You can also get pineapple, pomello, watermelon etc.

The bamboo tubes are filled with sticky rice and a few black beans.  There must be some water or coconut milk added as well. The top is plugged with coconut husk and banana leaves then roasted over hot coals for an hour.  The older lady cuts off the green outer bark with her knife.  When you get home, you peel off (or slice off) a section and scrape out all the delicious rice and enjoy.  Each stick costs about $0.90 and serves 2.

rice stick with grilled chicken

Mae Hong Son Loop

This loop is about 600 km and is north of Chiang Mai.  It is very popular with motorbikes as it winds its way up and down and back and forth through 1864 curves.  We gave the seat belts a good test in our little Suzuki Swift.  As you rarely reach speeds over 60 km/h, it is at least a 4 day trip.  We stayed in Pai, Mae Hong Son and Mae Sarieng.  I’ll break our trip up into those 3 stops as I think there is too much to share in one post.  There is a good website I found for travel around SE Asia where you can find more information about this trip we took.  travelfish.org

The Road to Pai

We booked our car through Hotwire for about $26/day and picked it up at the airport.  The first few minutes were a bit stressful for us as they drive on the left side of the road here.  Scooters fill in all the spaces between the cars and merging is done when the slightest space appears.  Signal lights are not commonly used.  Red lights cause the flow of traffic to stop eventually.  It is a very give and take flow down the roads.  Drivers seem patient and there are no horns honking or people yelling.  Apparently there are lots of accidents, but we haven’t seen any yet.  We came close to being squeezed off the road by a semi that was losing its lane, but a quick toot from us and he let us escape.

We quickly discovered that having a paper map would  have  been helpful as Google Maps don’t always choose the best route and it uses a lot of battery power on the phone.  The city traffic thinned out fairly quickly.  They don’t have big stores on the outskirts like we have at home. The overloaded trucks of eggs, pigs, chickens and vegetables emphasized the market economy in Thailand.

Chiang Dao

We passed the exit to the town of Pai and continued north to Chiang Dao.  The highlight of this town is a large cave at the Wat Than Chiang Dao.  It has 12 km of passages but you can travel through many of them with a guide and a light.  About a km of them have had walkways built and electric lights added.  The fee at the door states it is for the cost of electricity. This cave is inside the third highest mountain in Thailand and has many large caverns.  There was active water flow dripping down the stalagtites.

 

We walked in to see the sleeping Buddha that is thought to be from he 1850’s.  The signs are in Thai for the most part, and when I looked up the caves on line, there is nothing definitive.  This sleeping Buddha is made of bronze, and like many Buddhas in Thailand has layers of goldleaf applied to the face by faithful followers.  They also leave statues, flowers, candles and even toys.

There were people saying prayers and lighting candles.  I climbed some stairs to a platform that contained several Buddha sitting in a row.  They had different facial expressions and were plastered with gold leaf.  There were also statues of dogs and another arrangement of Buddha statues.  I don’t understand the significance of the arrangements but it was considered sacred and I had to remove my shoes before I could enter.

 

Outside the cave was a beautiful hillside with bamboo water wheels, ruins and a pond filled with huge carp and catfish.  There was also the usual market offering food and souvenirs.  An unusual stand contained all natural plant materials that we would probably define as herbal remedies.  There were baskets of ginger, ginseng, gonagal, turmeric, mushrooms and many other unrecognizable roots and stems.

There is an ancient chedi ruins on site that is reportedly 2000 years old. There is also a more recent wat that people were receiving blessings from monks in their orange wraps.

Temple dogs are common in Thailand.  They are fed although technically stray.  The “soi dogs” that live in our alley (soi) scrounge food or are fed by kindhearted tourists in hopes the dog will remember them kindly later. Almost all the dogs look the same here as far as size and distinctive features.  They do vary in colors.  That must be what many generations of inbreeding resolves to.  The dogs we see are like this.  They sleep in the heat of the day and howl, bark and chase tourists at night.  We haven’t been chased yet, but I’m glad we got our rabies vaccine before we left, just in case.

Temple dogs

On to Pai

We found a little roadside place for lunch.  They had 4 pictures of food but then one woman said “Pad Thai” and held up a bag of noodles.  We decided that was best.  It was tasty and came with a bowl of broth.  Condiments are on most Thai tables.  They include dried chili flakes, sugar, chilis in vinegar and fish sauce.  They cover the spicy, sweet, sour and salty flavors expected to be in Thai food.  It is more interesting than just adding ketchup to everything.

The drive to Pai covered many of the curves and hills we had expected.  This is truly jungle country.  There are green growing things everywhere.  The mountains are not as high as ours at home, but there were many vistas and viewpoints.  Unfortunately there were not many places to stop and look.  The roads are narrow and often along the curve of the mountains.  There was one nice rest area with lovely views and a little coffee shop.

views

The toilets were squat toilets like in China.  There was a pail of water beside the toilet.  When you finished, you poured water into the bowl to rinse it and make it flush down through the flap at the bottom.  Again, you had to be prepared with paper in your pocket.  The sink for washing your hands was outside the stall.

I had emailed to book a hotel that was recommended by one of the residents in our building. I didn’t get their email saying that they were full.  They did send us down the street to another hotel that still had rooms on a Saturday night.  We stayed at Diamond de Pai for about $35/night.  The wifi was spotty and the bed was very hard, but it was clean.  The shower was like a trailer shower where it is just in a corner of the bathroom, without a curtain.  To make the lights and A/C work, you had to put your room key base into a slot on the wall.   It was a great way to make sure you didn’t leave it running when you left the room.

Pai Nightlife

Pai is a backpacker mecca.  It is full of young people.  Our neighborhood in Chiang Mai has a mix of young travellers and retired travellers.  Pai is about 80/20 young to old.  At first glance it seemed to be much like Chiang Mai, but we discovered that the food in the restaurants caters more to International travellers than Thai visitors.  There were many vegetarian places and middle eastern food.  I had a falafel made by a Thai woman who makes her own pitas every day and fills them with fresh made falafel cooked in her portable fryer when you order.  You could order nutella and peanut butter crepes.  The walking street was filled with such a variety of food carts.  I understand that this area is also visited by Thais from the south who want to get away from the heat.  It was much cooler in the mountains, especially in the evening.

We have discovered that things change quickly in Thailand.  The restaurant our friends recommended doesn’t exist anymore.  The guide book recommendation had a kitchen issue and wasn’t open, although we could bring food from the market into their space and still buy from their bar.  The Edible Jazz restaurant had hammocks, cushions on the floor for sitting at low tables, or just reclining under the stars.  There was an open fire and stands of bamboo growing in the yard  The server brought us a little bottle of bug spray and a mosquito coil was burning under our table.

We stayed for an hour listening to the live music.  There were 2 thai men.  One sang and played rhythm guitar.  The other played lead guitar.  They did some great covers of the Beatles, Eagles, Pink Floyd, Neil Young and Bob Marley.  We went to the market to eat and while walking down the street, saw the same 2 men singing in another bar.  They were singing their own original songs and had changed roles of singer and backup. The bars with live music definitely had the biggest crowds.

I met a woman from Fresno travelling with her daughter.  I went over to see where they had bought their falafels.  The mom was about my age and was so excited her daughter had invited her to come on this trip.  The daughter had been to Thailand before a couple of times.  It was a short trip of 9 days, but she commented that it was all about spending time together.  They had had massages and listened to live music, rather that just be active and busy on their holiday.  Everyone you meet has a story.

 

Wat Doi Suthep- Temple on the Mountain

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View at the top

The Loy Krathong Festival was so fun and interesting but it wasn’t the only thing we did while Jane and Steve were visiting Chiang Mai.  We also travelled up the Doi Suthep mountain to visit the temple, Wat Doi Suthep.

Crowds in Chiang Mai

Before I share some more spectacular pictures of this golden wat, I wanted to clarify something that people commented on from an earlier post.  Several people thought they could never wander out with so many people crowded around.  That is the thing about Chiang Mai.  The people here are kind and respectful to each other and to the visitors.  That attitude seems to rub off on the farangs (tourists) as well.  The lantern and krathong releases were exciting but not crazy.  It was not just a drunken gathering.  There were police in sight but I never saw them needing to do anything except move people back from the corners where the floats needed to turn.

We missed a turn on our walk back to our apartment from festival day 2 and ended up on some unknown back streets (soi). We walked over 3 km and it was after 11 pm but felt completely safe.  There were lots of locals gathered around the food carts finishing off the day’s product. We stopped in a couple of chairs for a little rest outside a shop selling purses .  Right away a gentleman offered us a drink menu from the bar next door.  People worry more about the odd stray dog at night than they do the people.  I’m working on a post on the sidewalks and streets that will give you an idea of what we see and have to watch for when we walk.

Doi Suthep

Chiang Mai is up in the hills of Thailand at an elevation of 1020 feet.  We can see forested  “mountains” all around the city.  Doi Suthep is the one of the highest with its summit at 5250 ft. There is a national park on the mountain with hiking trails and waterfalls.  We haven’t visited those areas yet so that will be the topic of another conversation.

Buddhism in Thailand

Monk walking on the Iron Bridge

Monk walking on the Iron Bridge

I don’t pretend to be an expert in Theravada Buddhism, but I have learned a few things that help me understand the purpose of the many  wats (temples) for which Chiang Mai is famous.  Although it is based on Buddha’s teachings from India, it also includes ideas from Hindu, Tantric and Mahayana influences, like the worship of Buddha images. The belief of spirits, magic and astrology are also common in Thailand.  The Thais, however, believe that the strength of their country comes from Buddhism. the monarchy and nationhood.

Thais believe in reincarnation and to reach the stage of enlightenment, or nirvana–the ultimate state of being, they need to earn merit in whatever life they are presently in.  This can be earned by becoming a monk, which most boys do for some time during their life.  Giving food to a monk or having a monk bless a home or child-naming can also earn merit.  Being kind and respectful to others also count, as does leaving offerings to Buddha.  We’ve seen small banana baskets with food or flowers left on the sidewalk, or hung from a wall.

Offering left on the sidewalk

Offering left on the sidewalk

The Buddhist rules that apply visitors have to do with being respectful.  Visits to a temple expect your shoulders and knees to be covered.  I brought a scarf and bought some wrap around skirts to use for this purpose.  You also take off your shoes before entering a temple or anyone’s home.  Women may not touch a monk, or even sit next to one on public transportation.  The head is considered the most sacred part of the body so you are not to touch anyone’s head.  The feet are the lowest, least sacred  part so you never point your feet at someone, especially a Buddha statue.  Think of the lotus position with feet tucked away. It is very disrespectful to put your feet up on a chair or table, or close a drawer etc. with your feet.

Wat Doi Suthep

The Wat on the mountain  was supposedly chosen by a White Elephant.  In the 1390’s the king’s elephant walked up the mountain, trumpeted and turned around 3 times and the site was selected.  It is near the summit of the mountain and can be seen from the city, shining from within the forest.  Fortunately there is a paved road all the way there.

Getting to Wat Doi Suthep

The most common way to get there is by songtaew.  You can take one from the city to the Chiang Mai Zoo, then transfer to another one that takes a group of people up to the top.  It costs about 80 Bhat, or $3.00 to get there.  These vehicles are open in the back with sliding windows behind the benches.    The number of tune-ups they undergo is questionable.  The road is steep and full of switchbacks.  The exhaust blowing into the back and steady back and forth made feel quite queasy by the time we got to the Wat.

Songthaew. Passengers sit in benches along the side of the box.

Songthaew. Passengers sit in benches along the side of the box.

Upon arriving, we had 304 steps to climb to arrive at the actual temple.  The steps were brick but the railings were a Naga, the serpent protector of Buddha.  There a couple of pre-school girls in traditional dress on the bottom steps posing for pictures.  I didn’t see their parents, but apparently someone was collecting money for those who wanted to make a donation.  Those girls sat there all day in the heat.  I don’t know of any kids from home that would be that patient.

The climb was shaded and once at the top we took our shoes off and began to look around.  The Central Chedi was completed in the 16th  Century and is gold plated.  The filigree umbrellas on each corner are covered with gold leaf by pilgrims.  It is so bright from all the gold that it is hard to look at some of them.   One of the buildings had murals depicting the life of monks from the past.  There were many statues of Buddha.  His hand positions can symbolize reassurance, connecting to the earth, meditation or justice, to name a few.

 

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Visitor Behaviour

The thing that disappointed me about this beautiful Buddhist temple were many of the visitors.  Foreign tour guides were yelling at their clients with stories about the wat.  Girls were doing jump pictures.   There were signs to remind people to be quiet but you couldn’t see them through all the selfie sticks.  At the same time, people were doing meditation walks around the chedi, hanging bells with good wishes on the eaves and being blessed by monks.  Many areas were for people on their knees saying prayers.  It is real place of worship.  I would not expect to see the same people behave this way in a cathedral or even a church.   I felt a bit embarrassed being there at all.

What’s next?

I’ve started adding a few more pictures under the travel heading in the menu at the top.  This will be an ongoing process now that I know how to do it.  Check back.

There are no immediate plans for any visitors, so for now we continue to explore the area and enjoy the retired lifestyle of “Let’s see what the day will bring.”

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Jane, Peter and Steve